Joey Gilbert improves his game through 3D printing

By Ginny Privitar
CHESTER — Joey Gilbert loves sports. The six-year old from Chester plays baseball, basketball and soccer, even though he was born with just the beginnings of fingers on his left hand.

Joey’s mom, Dori, heard about a prosthetic hand design that could be downloaded and created on a 3D printer. Her friend Scott Paige, who had worked in prosthetics, got in touch with the Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center, a 3-D lab at the State University of New York at New Paltz. An electronic prosthesis can cost $30,000 and up, but in July the New Paltz team made a functional hand for Joey that cost only about $20 in materials. Because children quickly outgrow prostheses, an inexpensively produced prosthetic hand is a real boon.

“This was new for them," Dori said of the lab. "SUNY New Paltz never made one before. The first was made from plans on the website. They’re modifying it as they go until it functions the way it needs to be for Joey."

Joey's prosthesis grips by means of levers that close the fingers and thumb when he bends his wrist to grab something. He pronounced it “cool."

“Even though he’s proficient without it, he wanted to try," said Dori.

Joey is particularly interested in using the prosthesis to improve his performance in yet another sport — golf.

The lab made further refinements to enhance the prosthesis' comfort and flexibility. Joey is now on his second hand, an improvement on the one before, and customized just for him. The lab is working on a third hand for Joey. The first and second versions can’t move the thumb and the index finger to pinch. With the third one, Joey will be able to pinch the thumb and index finger together in a pincer movement.

"Orthopedists say if you have those two, you can do almost anything," Dori said.

Where art and science meet
The SUNY New Paltz team includes members from different disciplines: Dan Freedman, Dean of the School of Science and Engineering, is the director of the Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacture Center. His assistant director, Kat Wilson, has a background in fine arts and a masters in metal. Others who worked on Joey’s hand are Spencer Mass, biology professor; Caryn Byllott, biology and visual arts; and Adam Carlock, an undergraduate in the electrical engineering department.

The lab also made a prosthetic leg for a sheep named Felix, who lives at the Woodstock Animal Sanctuary. But mostly the lab exists to foster business in the Hudson Valley. The team members can’t talk about many of the center's innovations because they've signed non-disclosure agreements.

But there are some inventions they can talk about. They've created prototypes for educational models, including a nifty one of the Great Pyramid. When it’s opened into halves, you can see the burial chambers and tunnels inside.

The lab made a bridal bouquet holder for a local manufacturer that can be personalized with the bride’s name or wedding date, and in other ways too. Freedman said it's a good fit for 3D printing — a basic design that can be customized in many ways.

D. Silvestri Sons, an electrical, heating and air-conditioning repair firm in Fishkill, was working on an old building in Newburgh under renovation. Several original fittings — old-time wire molds — were missing, which brought the renovation to a halt. The firm tried every possible supplier without luck, except for a place in the city willing to fabricate them at an exorbitant cost. D. Silvestri Sons finally brought one to the SUNY New Paltz lab to be scanned and replicated. The project continued, with hundreds of dollars saved.

Businesses on board
The Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center was created to partner with inventors, designers, and local businesses to foster innovation in manufacturing. Thirty of the machines are the relatively small MakerBot Replicators, but the center also has high-end printers and recently purchased two new highly sophisticated machines. Thanks to a recent $850,000 grant secured by state Senator John Bonacic, the 3D printing laboratory at the college will be able consolidate operations now spread around two buildings.

Freedman said the lab has gotten a lot busier than they ever expected to be. "We’ve worked with about 25 companies, just in the last three to four months," he said.

He said much of the lab's work is with inventors and entrepreneurs developing and prototyping new inventions.

"The key thing is 3D printers are important, but what’s really important is design skills," he said. "You’re not going to see replacement of very common, ordinary consumer goods.”

It's the specialized, customizable product that will be most commonly done on 3D printers, he said.

Kat Wilson said the most interesting thing about the lab is "just the variety of people that come through here. Because things I would never have thought I would ever have worked with 3D printing will walk through this door and say, 'Oh, hey, I need this 3D printed.' And I would be like ‘Oh, okay.’ I hadn’t even thought of that application.”

How does it work?
3D printing promises to have as much impact on the world as the Internet or personal computers. Although the technology has existed since the 1980s, it's really taken off in recent years with the introduction of smaller, better, and less expensive machines. New ways to use this technology are constantly being developed.

3D printers use a digital software design, or file, to produce physical objects by gradually building up layers of material, from bottom to top. In some ways, they work like inkjet printers, which lay down dots of ink to build print or pictures on a page. The machines range from desktop to room-sized models. Materials used in the printers include plastic, a gypsum-like material, ceramics, metal gels, and many kinds of polymers and powders, even living cells. 3D printers are used in many applications, including manufacturing prototypes, industrial and architectural design, art, fashion, and medical uses — everything from the mundane to the miraculous.

Orange County Choppers used a Stratasys Fortis 3D printer to create a detailed dragon's head for its customized “Dragon” motorcycle. They've used their 3D printer to make parts for other custom bikes.

A New York City architect, Adam Kushner, plans to use 3D printing to build an estate consisting of a house, pool and pool house on property he owns in Gardiner.

Medicine is being transformed by 3D printing technology. In addition to creating prostheses, researchers expect that functional organs will be produced within 20 years. The 3D lab at Cornell University uses living cells, which become the “ink” that 3D printers use to replicate ears. The cells go into the printer as live cells and come out as live cells.

3D printing is already making a huge difference in people's lives. Joey Gilbert not only keeps up on all the sports he loves, he has a really fascinating creation to show off to friends and family.

“We have a green one now," said his mom, Dori. "He’s gone to the park and showed the other kids. My daughter brought in her brother’s hand to her third-grade class, and all the kids were amazed and excited."