From bespoke seats to titanium arms, 3D printing is helping paralympians gain an edge

Major sporting events similar the Paralympics are a breeding crushed for technological innovation. Athletes, coaches, designers, engineers and sports scientists are perpetually looking for the adjacent betterment that volition springiness them the edge. Over the past decade, 3D printing has become a tool to thrust improvements successful sports similar moving and cycling, and is progressively utilized by paralympic athletes.

The Paralympics features athletes with a divers scope of abilities, competing successful a wide scope of antithetic categories. Many competitors usage prosthetics, wheelchairs oregon different specialized components to alteration them to execute astatine their best.

One absorbing question is whether 3D printing widens oregon narrows the disagreement betwixt athletes with entree to specialized technologies, and those without. To enactment it different way, does the widespread availability of 3D printers—which tin present beryllium recovered successful galore homes, schools, universities and makerspaces—help to level the playing field?

Forget wide production

Mass-manufactured equipment, specified arsenic gloves, shoes and bicycles, is mostly designed to suit emblematic able-bodied assemblage shapes and playing styles. As such, it whitethorn not beryllium suitable for galore paralympians. But one-off, bespoke instrumentality is costly and time-consuming to produce. This tin bounds entree for immoderate athletes, oregon necessitate them to travel up with their ain "do-it-yourself" solutions, which whitethorn not beryllium arsenic precocious arsenic professionally produced equipment.

3D printing tin present bespoke instrumentality astatine a much affordable price. Several erstwhile paralympians, specified arsenic British triathlete Joe Townsend and US way athlete Arielle Rausin, present usage 3D printing to make personalized gloves for themselves and their chap wheelchair athletes. These gloves acceptable arsenic if they were molded implicit the athlete's hands, and tin beryllium printed successful antithetic materials for antithetic conditions. For example, Townsend uses stiff materials for maximum show successful competition, and softer gloves for grooming that are comfy and little apt to origin injury.

3D-printed gloves are inexpensive, rapidly produced, and tin beryllium reprinted whenever they break. Because the plan is digital, conscionable similar a photograph oregon video, it tin beryllium modified based connected the athlete's feedback, oregon adjacent sent to the nearest 3D printer erstwhile parts are urgently needed.

Harder, better, faster, stronger

An elite jock mightiness beryllium acrophobic astir whether 3D-printed parts volition beryllium beardown capable to withstand the required show demands. Fortunately, materials for 3D printing person travel a agelong way, with galore 3D printing companies processing their ain formulas to suit applications successful assorted industries—from aesculapian to aerospace.

Back successful 2016, we saw the first 3D-printed prosthetic limb utilized successful the Paralympics by German way cyclist Denise Schindler. Made of polycarbonate, it was lighter than her erstwhile carbon-fiber prosthetic, but conscionable arsenic beardown and better-fitting.

With probe showing sprint cyclists tin make much than 1,000 Newtons of force during acceleration (the aforesaid unit you would consciousness if a 100-kilogram idiosyncratic were to basal connected apical of you!), specified prosthetics request to beryllium incredibly beardown and durable. Schindler's helped her triumph a bronze medal astatine the Tokyo games.

More precocious materials being 3D printed for Paralympic instrumentality see c fiber, with Townsend utilizing it to nutrient the perfect crank arms for his handbike. 3D printing allows reinforced c fibre to beryllium placed precisely wherever it is needed to amended the stiffness of a part, portion remaining lightweight. This results successful a better-performing portion than 1 made from aluminum.

3D-printed titanium is besides being utilized for custom prosthetic arms, specified arsenic those that let New Zealand paralympian Anna Grimaldi to securely grip 50kg weights, successful a mode a modular prosthetic couldn't achieve.

Different technologies moving together

For 3D printing to present maximum results, it needs to beryllium utilized successful conjunction with different technologies. For example, 3D scanning is often an important portion of the plan process, utilizing a postulation of photographs, oregon dedicated 3D scanners, to digitize portion of an athlete's body.

Such exertion has been utilized to 3D-scan a spot mold for Australian wheelchair tennis champion Dylan Alcott, allowing engineers to manufacture a spot that gives him maximum comfort, stableness and performance.

3D scanning was besides utilized to make the perfect-fitting grip for Australian archer Taymon Kenton-Smith, who was calved with a partial near hand. The grip was past 3D-printed successful some hard and brushed materials astatine the Australian Institute of Sport, providing a much reliable bow grip with shock-absorbing abilities. If the grip breaks, an identical 1 tin beryllium easy reprinted, alternatively than relying connected idiosyncratic to hand-craft a caller 1 that mightiness person flimsy variations and instrumentality a agelong clip to produce.

All these technologies are progressively accessible, meaning much non-elite athletes tin experimentation with unsocial parts. Amateurs and professionals alike tin already bargain running shoes with 3D-printed soles, and 3D-printed customized motorcycle frames. For those with entree to their ain 3D printer, surf fins, cycling accessories and much tin beryllium downloaded for escaped and printed for conscionable a fewer dollars.

However, don't expect your location 3D printer to beryllium making titanium parts anytime soon. While the exertion is leveling the playing tract to a definite extent, elite athletes inactive person entree to specialized materials and engineering expertise, giving them the technological edge.

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This nonfiction is republished from The Conversation nether a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.