“3D: Printing the future” - London Science Museum 2013 

Over the summer of 2013 the EPSRC Centre in Additive Manufacture (AM), hosted by the University of Nottingham, opened its doors to twelve Undergraduate interns. The interns were split into groups, each focusing on different areas of research, working closely with the academic/research staff and the equipment available. The design team were given the task to ‘Develop a showpiece illustrating the capability of Multi-material Additive Manufacturing’.  

This project brief was set to showcase the EPSRC Centre’s activities in an exhibition at the London Science Museum, “3D: Printing the future”. Together with their supervisors the interns felt a 3D printed bionic arm would be an ideal application to demonstrate a futuristic and interesting design generated via the AM techniques.

The underlying aim of the multi-functional AM is to deposit dissimilar materials, such as polymers and metals, within a single process step. This capability allows the embedding of conductive tracks and electronic components. Thus, the design of the bionic arm features representations of internal electronic routings and components such as actuators, sensors and batteries to conceptualise a working active prosthetic. The goal was to produce a tangible and useful product demonstrating how multifunctional 3D Printing can be harnessed to serve the future user community.

The form of the conceptual prosthetic was developed by observing and analysing the form of the natural human arm and the movements that could be produced. Findings from research were incorporated into conceptual sketches, which were then modelled in CAD. Topology optimisation became a useful tool for design, assessing stresses and forces, to remove excess material. This not only helped in reducing the overall weight of the arm but also assisted in obtaining stiff design configurations.

The research group is very pleased with the outcome of this project. The conceptual prosthetic is currently being shown at the Science museum in London and was featured prominently at the 3D Printing Shows in London, and Paris.