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Erik chose the Indonesian island of Lombok because there the ratio of median income vs the cost of an artificial limb is close to 1:1. For people to have a shot at a somewhat normal life after the traumatizing event of losing a limb, they had to spend a year’s worth of income. Erik challenged himself and the people he worked with to bring the € 1.200, - price tag down to € 50, -.  

The ambitious end goal was to create a design for 3D printers, optimized for printing artificial limbs, which would be shipped to hospitals, followed by a training to teach local staffs to use it. Of course, that far exceeded the scope of his graduation project. So, he chose to focus on Lombok.  

Prototyping and customizing 

Erik needed a printer that could create solid prosthetics within a reasonable time frame. He started with a basic 3D printer. Just like with any 3D printer, this model didn’t just work right out of the box and Erik had to spend time to optimize the printer for its intended use.  

One of the big adjustments was changing the thickness of the print layers. A standard printer uses 0,4mm lines for greater precision. But with that layer size, printing an artificial leg would take 2,5 days. Increasing the layer size to 1,5 brought the time needed down to 10 hours. Also, the printer’s printable height had to be increased, since artificial limbs can be quite high. After some adjustments and improvements, the printer was tested and ready to use.  

Off to Lombok 

With all preparations going smoothly, it was time to ship the printer off to Lombok. Unfortunately, Indonesian customs demanded a hefty fee for allowing the printer to cross their border: twice the cost of the printer. Erik found a creative solution: buy an identical printer, have it delivered in Lombok and take the custom parts with him.  That caused a few inconveniences, like having to rebuild the printer on location and arranging a lot of paperwork for the custom parts. But at least it didn’t hurt the budget as much as shipping the prototype. 

After a slightly chaotic trip, Erik arrived in Lombok. Finally, he could start doing what he had been preparing for during the last two years. But there were still a few hurdles to take. Like the lack of decent internet access that prevented a smooth start. Luckily the medical staff he came to train were very understanding and helpful. And the hotel WIFI turned out to be stable enough to get going. 

A bumpy road to a great destination 

When the printer was up and running, it was time for the first instruction courses for the medical personal. In the meantime, Erik wanted to start a print, but the printer mainboard suddenly gave off sparks. Fortunately, the program could continue, and they found a way to fix the problem remotely, since at one point, Erik had to return home.  

Much to their surprise, the printer worked just fine the next day when Erik started training the future users in 3D Modelling prosthetics. Along the way, other issues arose, like the printing material (filament) breaking mid-print and oozing when it should be solid. These were issues caused by the high temperature and humidity in these parts of the world.  

All’s well that ends well 

After all issues had been resolved, the local hospital was the proud owner of a unique 3D printer that would make artificial limbs accessible to the local population. And Erik had proved that his original idea was a good and -even more important – a feasible one. After graduating Erik stuck to designing and modeling but on a slightly bigger scale: he currently works as an Associate Design Engineer at Fokker Landing Gear.