Forget Plastic Gears: Haitians Are Building Umbilical Cord Clamps with 3D Printers

3D printing might not be in the mainstream limelight quite yet, but it’s clear that it has a definite future. To date, we’ve seen people design complex objects such as a music record and an exoskeleton, and simple things like a cup, a gear, or practice abstract art. Even in poor countries, provided with important tools, people can build some rather simple, but important objects.

Over at Makezine, Ashley Dara talks about introducing 3D printers to Haiti. Corrupt government aside, some people there are creating rather impressive things, such as the umbilical cord clamp as mentioned in this post’s title. We can easily take something like that for granted over here, but there? Supplies like those are not so prevalent.

Along with providing a couple of MakerBot Replicator 1s, folks from Make are teaching some Haitians how to use some important digital tools, such as learning 3D modeling in SketchUp and Rhino, and also how to use Autodesk’s CAD software, Inventor. Judging by the comments section for the article, it appears that work is being done to help provide the proper materials to those with these printers – and in the realm of a government that heavily restricts imports, that’s important.

This, right here, is a perfect example of why 3D printers are amazing. I love stories like these, and hope to hear of many more as time goes on.