ALYN Woldenberg Family Hospital is Israel’s only pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation facility. ALYN treats children with a wide range of congenital and acquired conditions including cerebral palsy, neuromuscular diseases, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, burns, terror and motor vehicle accident victims.
3D Printed Snail Provides a Personalized Rehabilitation Aid
When ALYN came up with the idea of creating a child friendly walker, Massivit 3D naturally volunteered to lead the project.
Printing with Massivit’s 1800 printer, we created a walking aid for a young child with severe walking issues. Together, with the dedicated staff and their extensive experience, we focused on combining multiple disciplines and functional parts.
Massivit application team and ALYN staff got to work quickly to create an initial design prototype. They wanted to make sure everything fit together properly and numerous changes were introduced, among them were the actual fittings to be used to set the model on a moving platform and the removal of the handle bar. The staff insisted on creating a little cavity on top of the model, as well as small holes to tie things around the model.
To optimize the print and save material, the model was strategically split near the top, creating two separate sections. Each part was sent as an STL file to the Massivit 1800 printer and were printed individually at MASSIVit 3D research & development facility. The lower part of the model was printed in a total of 5:10 hrs. and used 2.79 kg of Massivit’s 
gel Dimengel. The upper part was printed in a total of 1:55 hrs and used 1 kg of Dimengel.
Using traditional production methods, this model might have taken days to build by hand and finish to the designer’s specifications and more likely it would have ended up being a simple squared rehabilitation tool that does not look like a snail. But with the Massivit 1800 3D printer, the Massivit applications team completed the process overnight.
The results speak for themselves, the child was excited with the new toy and the caring staff were happy they found a medium between fun and rehabilitation. Massivit 3D is now working on the next prototype and rehabilitation aid.
