3D Printing to Save Horses Lives
This is awesome news. Personallized titanium horse shoes may prevent horses from having to be put down!
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Quote:
3D titanium shoes may save horses from euthanasia
Shoes are always a nice Christmas present, especially when they reduce pain from a serious inflammatory disease.A novel use for 3D printing technology has meant just that for Holly the horse, who received shoes? made from titanium to help with walking difficulties brought on by laminitis.
Luke Wells-Smith, a horse vet and farrier with the Equine Podiatry and Lameness Centre in NSW, saw that a team at CSIRO had printed a light-weight shoe for a racehorse and contacted them to ask if it would be possible for a horse with laminitis.
Also known as founder, laminitis can be crippling and sometimes result in permanent lameness or euthanasia for the horse. The disease, which causes inflammation of the tissue attaching the foot bone to the hoof, can be managed in a variety of ways but has no actual cure.
Holly has suffered from laminitis for the last three years. Since being fitted with the new titanium shoes by Dr Wells-Smith, she appeared to show an immediate improvement and has been seen trotting around the paddock.
Dr Wells-Smith said 3D printing technology offered a significant advantage in making the shoe highly specialised. After assessing how Holly walked and then taking X-rays of her feet, Dr Wells-Smith could determine the exact type of shoe that would benefit her and design a shoe that fit.
Dr Wells-Smith said often with laminitis vets tried to wedge the heels up to varying degrees to redistribute weight towards the back of the foot.
“In the case of Holly, we actually put a curve to the bottom of the shoe so the horse can rock forward and change the angle of its foot to suit how comfortable it is,” Dr Wells-Smith said.
“So it's kind of like a self-adjusting orthotic for the horse.”
John Barnes, Titanium Technologies Theme Leader at CSIRO?, said it was an ideal ?project for 3D technology.
“The flexibility 3D printing offers from a manufacturing perspective is that the detail is infinite, so we can really produce a wide variety of very detailed or unique or customised components very easily,” said Mr Barnes.
Entire article at:
http://www.watoday.com.au/environmen...219-2zlsd.html
