Sol with his new prosthetic arm.
Get ready to feel warm and fuzzy. A father in North Wales has today launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the development of a new functional 3D printed prosthetic technology for infants.
Inspired by his son Sol who lost most of his left arm after he was born with an undetected clot in 2015, Ben Ryan set out to develop his own, patented hydraulic system to enable Sol’s left arm to grip and power a prosthetic.
The project began when Ben discovered it could take up to three years for Sol to be fitted for an electronic device. Recognising the trend for young children to reject prosthetics if they are not fitted with a functional hand during early brain development, he set out to find his own solution and encouraged Sol to use both arms so he would become more likely to adopt prosthetics later on.
“Current prosthetic arm technology for infants dates back to the Victorian era in many cases,” Ben commented. “They are ugly and often rejected early on. Unfortunately, newer technologies such as arms with myo-electric sensors are often unsuitable for children under three and there is clear evidence that the earlier function can be introduced - the better.”
Ben developed a patented DAHB technology, a lightweight, 3D printed, flexible hydraulic power splitting device, which powers the grip of the wearer’s arm. The device is powered by a wearer’s own muscles and the mechanism is inspired by how spiders move their legs using fluid pressure, by leveraging sacks of fluid in the socket which are squashed to perform a basic grabbing mechanism. Together with his brother Kevin, Ben is now launching a company, Ambionics and an Indiegogo campaign to raise enough money to fully develop the technology and potentially disrupt the prosthetics market.
Ben started by introducing Sol to homemade foam arms at five weeks old and found that within minutes he began playing with his toys using both ‘arms’. He then approached his local University to produce a 3D scan of Sol’s NHS issued arm and the first prototype socket was 3D printed using Stratasys Connex technology and considerably lighter than the original arm.
Using the scan data, Ben worked with Autodesk’s Fusion 360 and Paul Sohi, who used the same software to design the world’s first 3D printed sports prosthetic for Rio Paralympic cyclist Denise Schindler, to modify the design and incorporate his DAHB technology.
“This is a very innovative and ambitious project and it’s been inspiring to work with Ben on it,” says Sohi. “It is amazing that despite Ben having no real background in product design, he’s effectively taught himself enough to create something that will not only help his own son Sol, but in Ambionics, potentially lots of others facing the same challenges too.”
Within two months Ben managed to design and print the first working system but it was too small for Sol to wear. The next step was to produce an accurate scan of Sol’s arm rather than the socket of his prosthetic, so Ben used a £20 Microsoft Xbox Kinect scanner to get an accurate scan of Sol’s arm whilst he was asleep.
With the flexibility to keep the scan on file, the digital copy allows replacement prosthetics to be easily produced through 3D printing as modifications are needed and as the wearer grows. Typically a prosthetic device from the NHS can take 11 weeks to convert the plaster cast of the arm into a wearable prosthetic, but using 3D printing, Ben was able to produce the prosthetic in just five days.
“Essentially the entire prosthetic is 3D printed,” Ben adds. “Only Stratasys’ strong rubber-like and dissolvable support 3D printing materials make production and use of the DAHB units possible. The internal cavities are complex and it would be impossible to remove the support material using mechanical means. The materials must also be strong yet flexible as they are used to transmit fluid pressure to operate the grip.”
With financial support from family and friends, Ben filed for 12 months international patent protection through Ambionics and the company was selected onto a Start-up Business Programme through the Life Sciences Hub Wales. Ben also enrolled on the innovate2succeed programme through InnovateUK. Now Ambionics is campaigning to raise £150,000 to continue R&D, get certification and get the start-up off the ground.
“I’d love to see a massive response to our Indiegogo Crowd Funding campaign and it would be amazing if we could secure all the funds we need to take the technology straight to the next level - around £1.7M”, explains Ben. “Right now though, we are asking for the £150k that is needed to get us to October – this will allow us to complete development and get the required certification, critical to take us to the next stage.”
To support the campaign, visit Ambionics' Indiegogo page.
