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'How the 3D-Printing Community Worldwide is Aiding Ukraine' (msn.com) 41

Jakub Kaminski is a robotics engineering graduate student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. With some volunteers he spent two months designing the perfect tourniquet for the battlefields of Ukraine, designed meet the highest medical standards — and then uploaded it to 3DPrintingForUkraine.com.

Now in less than 8 weeks "around 120 individuals and companies worldwide with 3D printers have accessed the design," reports the Washington Post. [Alternate URL here] "Together, they have made roughly 5,000 reusable tourniquets that are bound for Ukraine, where they will be stitched and sent off to the battlefield, Kaminski said..." Using digital files, people are designing supplies such as bandages, tourniquets, splints and add-ons to AK-47 guns.... [In February, as Russia began its invasion] people in the 3D-printing community talked with Ukrainian military officials, hospital administrators and charity organizations, trying to gauge what they could print quickly that would be most helpful. Tourniquets and bandages were repeated requests. Mykhailo Shulhan, the chief operating officer of a Ukrainian 3D-printing company in Lviv, said that as soon as the invasion began, he started researching how 3D printers helped in other conflicts....

These days, his company, 3D Tech Addtive, develops and prints an array of weapons accessories: AK-47 holsters so soldiers have a way to rest their guns; bullet magazines since empty cartridges often get thrown away instead of reused; carrying bags for grenades; and most recently, anti-reflective lenses for sniper scopes to reduce glare and prevent Ukrainian snipers from being seen. (All together, they have provided over 5,000 components to the front lines, Shulhan estimated....)

While most 3D printers create supplies to stop death or ease fighting conditions, others are focusing on rehabilitating soldiers. Brett Carey, a physical therapist in Hawaii, designs 3D printed splints that can be sent to fighters... Carey has created two digital designs for splints that have been uploaded online and 3D printed over 1,500 times. If injuries are advanced, he has people send him images of their injuries using EM3D — a 3D imaging app — which allows him to make a custom made splint which is then shipped to Ukraine...

The Post also got this quote from the robotics engineering student whose team designed the tourniquets.

"It's a beautiful thing," he said. "If you make people in Ukraine feel better, and enable people to help. ... This is something really special."
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'How the 3D-Printing Community Worldwide is Aiding Ukraine'

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  • Which you can stick pins in
    • Don't worry, the Japanese got your back. [ndtv.com]
    • A Putin voodoo doll is old and busted.

      A "Ghost of Kyiv" action figure is the new hotness.

    • Which you can stick pins in

      Why bother? The dude already has terminal cancer.

      Besides, given that Putin is apparently micromanaging troop movements I think I'd rather keep him and his delusional chemo brain in the driver's seat until things go into full collapse.

      If the west actually gives Ukraine the firepower to match the Russians they might even get Crimea back.

  • by Mal-2 ( 675116 ) on Monday June 13, 2022 @06:25AM (#62614960) Homepage Journal

    Usually it sucks to beta test everyone else's ideas, even if they're good ideas. But in this case every little bit that works saves real lives, and most of these ideas are going to at least mostly work. I'm sorry Ukraine was "volunteered" for the job, of course, and this is scant compensation for that, but we do what we can with what we have.

  • by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Monday June 13, 2022 @07:22AM (#62615060) Homepage
    What's really amazing is that only Ukraine has 3D printers and Russia doesn't have any, and if they did, they couldn't access these digital files anyway. LOL
    • Re:Helping Ukraine (Score:4, Interesting)

      by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Monday June 13, 2022 @01:44PM (#62616230)

      What's really amazing is that only Ukraine has 3D printers and Russia doesn't have any, and if they did, they couldn't access these digital files anyway. LOL

      I think there's a few things there:

      The outreach is to Ukrainians, the designs are made to match Ukrainian equipment, the troubleshooting assistance is given to Ukrainians, the things designed are what Ukrainians asked for, and it's a lot easier for Ukrainian civilians with 3d printers to get the things they printed to the front lines.

      With all of those factors put together I wouldn't be shocked if the number of Russian soldiers printing these designs and using them on the front lines is literally zero.

      • by RobinH ( 124750 )
        I suspect you're correct, but I think that in the big picture 3D printing is a neutral technology that could easily help either side. Russia certainly has lots of 3D printers and tech literate citizens willing to help their war effort. What they might lack in Russia is an effective way to ask those people for help without admitting that they're losing.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Libs scream about assault weapons, 3D printed weapons and Nazis, and here they are printing assault weapon accessories for nazis. It's almost as cute as the US standing with Afghanistan and providing training/weapons to Al Qaeda.

  • I now know what to do with my box of never-used 3d printed phone stands, D20s, pencil holders and back scratcher... wrap it up and ship it off to war!

    no thanks needed, my Ukranian brethren, just doing my part

  • Lets be honest here were propping them up fightihg a proxy war.

    • by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Monday June 13, 2022 @12:27PM (#62615992)

      Lets be honest here were propping them up fightihg a proxy war.

      A proxy war is when you would rather be fighting X directly, can't do it, so you help along Y when they fight X instead.

      But no one was ever interested in attacking Russia. The only reason Russian soldiers are being killed is because Putin sent them to invade a free and peaceful neighbouring country (again).

      So the west (not just the US) isn't propping up Ukraine fighting a proxy war, they're giving Ukrainians the tools they need to defend their country from a fascist invasion.

      • by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

        It is totally a proxy war. It is even listed in the "list of proxy wars" Wikipedia page.

        Russia is the aggressor but the west totally could have left Ukraine alone. The reason the west defends Ukraine is that we don't want Russia to expand its influence. When war happens in places of no economic or strategic significance, like in Ethiopia, no one cares.

        • It is totally a proxy war. It is even listed in the "list of proxy wars" Wikipedia page.

          Because if someone added it to a list it must be true!

          Russia is the aggressor but the west totally could have left Ukraine alone. The reason the west defends Ukraine is that we don't want Russia to expand its influence. When war happens in places of no economic or strategic significance, like in Ethiopia, no one cares.

          The reason the west defends Ukraine for a few reasons.

          One, there is an ethnic and cultural factor. Tragedies happen in Africa, but the victims are of a different race and a very different culture, western populations don't empathize with the victims to the same extent.

          Two, this is a war in Europe. It's supposed to be one of the regions where wars don't happen anymore. The fact that Russia started one is pretty outrageous.

          Finally, it's actually really har

          • by caelst ( 2882403 )
            I beleive that you need to do some more research on this subject. You seem to base your opinion on a strictly Western view of world history. What of Ukrainian's bombing the regions for the past 8 years? What of the clearly Nazi loving criminals that are running the country? The list goes on... The west is very much blind to the Russian strategies, Ukrainian strategies as well as anything else that stands to benefit the USA having control over the EU economies and anything near by. Your comment about post
            • I beleive that you need to do some more research on this subject. You seem to base your opinion on a strictly Western view of world history.

              What of Ukrainian's bombing the regions for the past 8 years?

              I don't understand why you think Ukraine would do that.

              They clearly couldn't enter the "separatist" regions without Russia intervening, so what possible motive would Ukraine have for keeping the conflict going? It would literally be starting a way they had zero hope of winning.

              The only reason the conflict continued was that Russia kept it going for the purposes of destabilizing Ukraine and increasing divisions between the occupied territories and the rest of Ukraine.

              What of the clearly Nazi loving criminals that are running the country?

              Do you have any source for this other tha

  • bullet magazines since empty cartridges often get thrown away instead of reused

    I guess I should be happy they didn't say clip or clipazine. Neat they are making killflash lense caps, that was one of the first things I designed and printed.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Nobody uses AK47s in the Ukraine war. Lot of AK74s though.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • its not actually a tourniquet, that part is the belt made out of webbing material, this is a buckle mechanism, now I know the "heart" is in the right place but one can make a tourniquet in the field with a sturdy strip of cloth and a good stick ... it can even be tied off to retain pressure for long periods of time. Not to be macabre, but if someone near you just got a limb blown off there's plenty of sturdy fabric from the shredded clothing and stick like objects around the site

    • Losing a limb because your buddies applied a tourniquet is better than losing your life, but perhaps if these folks had sent ammunition or smart weapons instead, they wouldn't be needing the tourniquet in the first place. And if should they need one, they don't need your tourniquet.

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