Brandy Leigh Scott was diagnosed with Dupuytrens Contracture syndrome when she was only seven years old. Dupuytrens most commonly effects men over sixty, but Brandy has suffered from limited use of her hands for most of her life because of the disease. Dupuytrens makes Brandy’s hands slowly close up into fists making it very difficult for her to perform many basic tasks like, using an ATM machine or drinking a glass of water. Brandy has come up with a few tools and tricks to help her adapt to her physical limitation, but until now it has been difficult to manifest the tools she needs when she needs them.
Months earlier, Brandy met with her friend Mara Hitner for brunch using a plastic cup holder with a handle on it to hold her coffee. She told Mara that the cup holder was a lifesaver and that had she of known that the company was going to discontinue them, she would have bought more than two of them. Mara, who worked at MatterHackers, an Orange County, California based 3D printer, software and supplies center, had a hunch that additive manufacturing technology might be just the right fit for her friend. Brandy’s condition required that she be able to improvise and innovate on the spot, she might need one thing one day, and something entirely different the next. Only a 3D printer could allow her such freedom. Whatever Brandy could think up, Mara and her Director of Print Solutions, Dave Gaylord, could design and print at MatterHackers.
So, Mara introduced Dave to Brandy, in hopes that MatterHackers could use 3D printing technology to help make Brandy’s life a little easier. After taking care of printing out more of Brandy’s useful cupholders, the next major issue was swiping her credit card when going to the gas station. Her knuckles would often get in the way and the card would only go part of the way in the swiper.
Dave sprang into action. He listened to what Brandy needed, looked at her hands and got to work. He designed a custom item that he hoped would make a big difference in Brandy’s day-to-day life. He created a custom set of forceps that took into account basic measurements of Brandy’s hand in open and closed positions. This device, Dave hoped, would solve her credit card swiping problem and might have a few other uses as well.
After Dave took the measurements of Brandy’s hands, he drew out the design for the forceps on paper with Brandy to get all of her feedback. Then he used a CAD program to design the forceps. After a few printed prototypes didn’t quite work, Dave and Brandy continued to work together to find the perfect blend of function and form. Eventually the forceps length was changed in order for Brandy to be able to get more leverage. The final design was stamped with Brandy’s seal of approval only after she tested them out in real world situations.
3D printing offers myriad customization options. That is why this technology has a big future in designing prosthetics and tools for people with physical disabilities like Brandy.
MatterHackers has added all kinds of personal details to Brandy’s tools. She has a Baltimore Ravens logo on her cupholder, a hard eight on her can holder and her initials and two bits of rubbery material to help grip the credit card better on her forceps. Plus, she can keep customizing and reinventing her tools and adding more 3D printed tools to her toolbox. 3D printing is only as good as we make it, and sometimes a thorough understanding of the challenge at hand and simple design are all we need to come up with innovative solutions.
Now, when Brandy Leigh Scott finds one of her daily tasks to be difficult, she steps back, examines the problem and thinks, “What could we print to make this easier?”
