Disabled Duck Gets A New 3D Printed Limb, Faith In Humanity Restored!

The power of 3D printing has been proven once again valuable. This time, helping a poor disabled duck. Dudley, a duck rescued by the K911 animal rescue service from Sicamous, Canada, has lost his leg when just a baby from the attack of a vicious chicken kept in the same pen as Dudley.

The prosthetic was created by Terence Loring at 3 Pillar Design, which is a company that specializes in 3D printing architectural prototypes. He heard of Dudley’s misfortune from a friend and decided to make him a 3D printed limb with the help of his experience in 3D printing prototypes.

Loring first came up with a jointed construction that was fully 3D printed in plastic by Proto3000 in Canada. After it was attached to Dudley, it broke and Dudley fell over. So Loring went back to designing a new and improved one, something that had no joints and printed in a softer plastic.

The second attempt went very well, Dudley got the second model attached and started to walk straight away. Although it does cause friction sores, something that has happened in the past with another prosthetic , having solved it by adding a silicone sock and prosthetic gel liner.

Loring will undoubtedly find a way to get around the friction sores issue as well. In the meantime, Dudley is very happy that it can walk again! Hurray to 3D printing once again!

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