3D Printing helps 5 Year old Kid to get a Robohand

Updated on February 17, 2013

A cute little kid, Liam Dippenaar – only 5 years old born with Ambiotic Band Syndrome, due to which he has to use his left hand for eating and to do other daily routines. He can’t sketch what he thinks & can’t catch a ball with both hands. Because he missed the most important part of any human’s hand – fingers. But thanks to the innovations from Owen (from Washington) & Richard Van of South Africa who developed a customized prosthetic fingers called Robohand. It’s an open source instrument that can help provide hands to anyone for free.

Robohand by Van & Owen

The dream of developing a Robohand was started in early 2011, when the co-developer Richard Van lost his fingers in a miserable accident. Along with Owen and with donations of two Replicator2 Desktop 3D Printers from MakerBot, he started to design Robohand for himself.

ALSO READ: The World’s First 3D-Printed House To Be Built By Dutch Architects In 2014!

The hand can operate using cables and pulleys, which are made of nontoxic, biodegradable, printable plastic. Richard & Owen developed the customized prosthetic fingers called Robohand for $150, which would otherwise cost $60,000 in the market.

Robohand by Van & Owen

Van & Owen made their project details available on the website, which helped Liam’s mother to reach them out to build a 3D printing hand for her kid. Now Liam can catch a ball with both hands

Checkout the project here

ALSO READ: Edible 3D-printed burger is coming! Would you like to have one?!

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