Britt Young

Around 10 years ago, people started approaching me and asking me for my opinion on 3D printing because I've been wearing, at the time, prosthetic limbs or a prosthetic arm for my whole life.

And it was around 10 years ago when it started to enter the public consciousness as a revolutionary way to cut costs and increase accessibility.

You could potentially, out of your own garage, make your own high-tech Iron Man-esque prosthetic limb, and that would be a fraction of the cost than a conventionally available prosthetic limb.

And this is sort of kind of true, not quite true.

A lot of these designs are not very durable.

They're not very comfortable.

They are made of pretty cheap plastic.

And obviously, they're not made by professionals.

So they're not professionally fitted.

3D printing now...

is giving you more sophisticated sockets at the professional level at your prosthetist, but it has yet to cut the costs.

So why hasn't this lowered costs?

So for one, what we're really dealing with is something called additive manufacturing.

And at the professional level, that means a

over $1 million machine.

And that machine requires a tremendous amount of upkeep.

The firm also must pay for, just like the rest of us, licensing and subscription fees to software.

And they also have to pay an enormous air conditioning bill to keep the 3D printer in a climate controlled environment.

And all of this is adding up to quite a bit of cost for the prosthetics firm.

However, they are able to see more patients.