Ayúdame3D joins forces with Sicnova for the production of prostheses through additive manufacturing.
Guillermo M.Gauna-Vivas, director of Ayúdame3D with José Espin, commercial delegate of SICNOVA in Madrid.
Sicnova has reached an agreement with the NGO Help me3D for the donation of hardware and consumables for the manufacture of prostheses for people for people with amputated or malformed upper limbs. Specifically, the agreement consists of the delivery of a 3D scanner model EinScan 2X Plus by Shining 3Dfor the 3D digitisation of objects and parts of the human body, and the monthly supply of 25 spools of PLA filament, the latter in collaboration with Dutch manufacturer BASF Forward AM. A total of 300 spools will be used over the next 12 months to manufacture hand, forearm and full arm prostheses, which will be donated free of charge to people with limited financial resources.
These special prostheses, christened 'trésdesis', consist of 3D printed arms with prehensile mobility thanks to the joint that each person has (wrist, elbow or shoulder), through an internal system of nylon cords and rubber bands that allows opening and closing the prosthetic hand to manipulate objects, which allows these people to greatly improve their autonomy and quality of life in their daily lives. These models are based on the original models of Enabling The Future, and Ayúdame 3D has also incorporated a new model for people without an elbow. The material used, PLA or polylactic acid, is a plastic obtained from raw materials of vegetable origin, which guarantees the conditions of performance, ease of printing and low cost that allow this initiative to have the potential to reach any part of the world.
The NGO will use the 3D scanner for the prototyping of new assistive devices and the scanning of limbs of amputees, in order to be able to adjust and customise the trésdesis as much as possible and to continue its research and development work on social technology projects.
Ayúdame 3D is an NGO based in Madrid, born in 2017 after the delivery of five 3D printed arms to five people in the Rift Valley (Kenya). From then on, the project was launched to take this solidarity initiative to people all over the world who need a prosthesis of this type, so that today there are already 250 people a year who receive these prostheses in a total of 50 countries.
The NGO currently has an extensive network of 3D printing experts who manufacture these devices at home with their own 3D printers and deliver them free of charge to the recipients. There are around 100 collaborators, or "Helpers3D", who must meet certain technical prerequisites to ensure that they are able to manufacture the prostheses correctly, in accordance with the necessary quality parameters. In addition to prostheses, the NGO Help me 3D also manufactures other items such as COVID-19 protective face shields, personalised boxes to cover chemotherapy bags for child cancer patients, and special pillboxes for Parkinson's patients.
In recent years, Ayúdame 3D has received a multitude of national and international awards and recognitions. The most recent of these has been the Princess of Girona Foundation Award in the Social section, from the hands of His Majesty Felipe VI.
Antonio Carrillo, Sicnova's Communication Director, values this collaboration agreement as an example of the social transformation potential of additive manufacturing: "Ayúdame3D has demonstrated in recent years the capacity of 3D printing and decentralised digital manufacturing to improve the quality of life of thousands of people around the world. At Sicnova, we have also experienced this first-hand when we launched the COVID-19 Portal last year, with which volunteers from all over Spain manufactured up to 100,000 assistive devices for healthcare and public personnel".
"We know that with a small effort together we can achieve great changes for people who really need it, changes that would be unthinkable from a technical and economic point of view if we did not have the help of additive manufacturing. That is why both our partner BASF Forward AM and Sicnova, as the leading supplier of cutting-edge 3D technology in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America, wanted to join the great charity work of Ayúdame 3D," he says.
Ayúdame3D is an organization that promotes the social values of new technologies by creating awareness programs and providing aid through 3D printing. It has educational programs that seek to promote creative-resolutionary intelligence among young people, in addition to carrying out social awareness work. It also carries out CSR actions with companies to create a more ethical and supportive business environment, and has a platform of volunteers who are experts in 3D printing. All this in order to be able to distribute aid globally: trésdesis (3D printed arms for amputees around the world).
CONTACT
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