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Yes, I meant Paw instead of Hand… and yes you may have found something useful in the next couple of paragraphs / post, Buckle up and sit tight this is the beginning of an awesome story.
So, the last year I met a brilliant guy (He is brilliant have 3 PHDs in Rocket Science… joking, but he really have 3 PhD in advance materials and medicine from Cambridge… so he is a big deal in science and research). And we begin a journey in Pretty much all the advance manufacturing & design stuff, I’ve always thought medical devices were… basically a hardcore industry, and will require an Advance PhD degres from a world class university like Cambridge…(yes you need one of those) and by the time I was still working for Autodesk (short in time to do other stuff), so I decided to divided my time into advance software stuff (Autodesk) and design & science… imagine the possibilities to design and manufacture devices for people with medical problems, to be specific… head prosthetics / Implants. Sounds awesome, right? (yes, it is). So, we begin this journey into the medical world, and let me tell you… it is hard, very hard… just imagine the precision, the processes, tolerances, State of the art CNC Machining, Advance 3D printing, Simulation, the medical grade equipment, sterile rooms, deadlines, all those little repetitive processes and checks to avoid errors, because basically a prosthetic is not allow to fail. And If it does that’s the end of the line, you are responsible the life of a person.
At the time I was Designing a new fixture for Surgical Guides, for testing and prototype, and the “Doc”, texted me with some new pictures, basically a new patient but this time was a furry one, a little Poodle, long story short she was attacked by Rottweiler, and the rear leg was pretty bad, the Vet tried to save the leg but, he ended up cutting the limb. So, the owners expense pretty much all their money vacation (elder couple) in his beloved friend: surgery, medicine and hospitalization, and now they need to find; though, unbreakable, military grade, cheap, & cool prosthetic for his little Poodle (challenge accepted). Their first prosthetic option, literally is a wood leg, and it’s not a joke, in the middle of 2018 and the medicine still considering, a wood leg a suitable solution for replacing limbs. (readers of the future, Medicine still medieval in 2018)
I consider myself a lucky person, had a good childhood around family, friends and dogs (since the age of 3 always had a dog around me) all sizes and shapes, Layla from the picture below is the current one, a small Chihuahua rescued from dungeons of death (my brother’s Med’s Occupation… sorry I lost my train of tought). So basically, I grew up with dogs, and honestly, I can’t Imagine what a terrible feeling would be to have and injured friend and couldn’t do anything for him, and I think that’s the exact same feeling the owners have right know. So, If you are a dog lover like me, and have this ridiculous superpower of design stuff (yes… that’s my mutant power: Designing Stuff) you will make some space in your agenda to take one more thing on your plate (Autodesk / Advance Prosthetics / Music / Cool Dog Prosthetic). And not a simple one, remember… Though, Unbreakable, Military Grade, Cheap, & Cool).
In the following posts, will get deeper into the amazing experience of designing a Dog prosthetics, we will cover from the research, design process, modeling, simulation, rendering, even the manufacturing process into the final product and some shots of the lucky owner… A Poodle, wearing not a Wood leg, but a wicked engineered, kick ass limb
Facts:
Did you know that the largest population of Dogs exists in México? Around 18M Dogs in whole country, (Wow that’s a lot of dogs), is the largest population in South and Central America, multiply that X 4, that’s 72 Million limbs (Paws).
Layla… Up here Current Dog guess from who we took the name?