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Project for Ukraine Demos Benefits, Challenges of 3D Printing

Ilene Wolff
By Ilene Wolff Contributing Editor, SME Media

Count on an engineer to talk about distributed manufacturing, performance, and quality control challenges when asked for an interview about his 3D-printed tourniquets for Ukraine.

Those are some of the key issues with 3D printing, though, and ones faced and solved by the 3D Printing for Ukraine initiative and project manager Jakub Kaminski. A Fulbright scholar from Poland, Kaminski graduated in January from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass., with a master’s in robotics engineering.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Kaminski received a request from a surgeon friend for tourniquets in the war zone, where there was a shortage. The available tourniquets were of poor quality, and stories emerged of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers making ad hoc ones from pieces of steel and lengths of bicycle wheel tubing.

The simplicity of a tourniquet belies the importance of having a properly working device to stanch blood flow. That can make a life-saving difference for someone bleeding from shrapnel or other wounds, who may have as little as three minutes before blood loss becomes fatal.

“Originally we wanted to buy them, but there was a global shortage,” Kaminski said. “Sewing and testing in Ukraine emerged as an economically viable solution for our volunteer effort.”

The core group of volunteers is an international team of medical professionals, engineers, and students, supported by several Ukrainian universities. If volunteers could produce six tourniquets in Ukraine for the price of one, they could help offset the scarcity of these critical medical supplies.

Kaminski, who based his design on well-established industry standards and validated it with medical professionals, is well-versed with medical robotics technology. His thesis project at WPI, where he now works as a research assistant, was a six-degrees-of-freedom robotic manipulator and control methods to improve the safety of lung ultrasounds. He also developed an autonomous ultrasound for thyroid imaging, using 3D-vision data and force control with a Franka Emika cobot.

“You do medical robotic research to plant a seed for the future,” Kaminski said. “But suddenly, in war time, you can use engineering skills to make a difference today.”

Kaminski and his fellow volunteers set up a supply chain and a website (www.3dprintingforukraine.com). The team provides STL files for 3D printing PETG parts, patterns for webbing and closures, and directions. Organizers put out a call for people with the know-how to print plastic parts and professionals in sewing facilities who complete the manufacturing process.

The tourniquets aren’t certified as a medical device but they can be used under emergency conditions, Kaminski noted. They are quality tested by the team members, and by medical and military personnel in Ukraine. But, Kaminski stressed, the project isn’t designed to compete with commercial, high-quality products certified by Tactical Combat Casualty Care, which provides training to teach the best battlefield trauma care.

Almost 300 volunteers with 3D printers have signed up, with about 100 printing at any one time around the world. A handful of sewing shops, primarily in Ukraine, combine printed parts with nylon webbing and special Velcro fasteners. Donations cover tourniquet sewing and materials costs, out of which over half is spent with Ukrainian sewing shops and local textile suppliers, Kaminski said, emphasizing the project relies on donated r&d, printing, testing, and logistics.

In addition to their intrinsic medical value, the tourniquets have supplied some levity. Noting that the windlass on each tourniquet bears the legend, “Glory to Ukraine,” Kaminski said “the soldiers joke it makes the part 20 percent stronger.”

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