Lasers, 3D printers aid prosthetics

A cutting-edge 3D printer, called a laser metal sintering machine, is aiding the development of robotic fingers, hands and arms for amputees at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center.

The metal printer is allowing Richard Weir, research associate professor-bioengineering, to build better prosthetics, including joints and robotic articulations, right in his laboratory.

The technology, which was funded through a grant from the Veterans Administration, uses a three-dimensional image to methodically laser-sinter beads of metal powder into solid metal to build complex, small 3D metal constructions. The printer “may actually enable us to build more complicated…