3D printing technology was yet again able to save the life of an animal. A tortoise named Fred was given a 3D printed shell after it survived a forest fire in Brazil, that burnt most of its own shell.
Found by the volunteer group the “Animal Avengers”, Fred had lost around 85% of her shell. The team of vets had already experience in creating 3D printable prosthetics for injured animals and used about 40 photos of Fred to combine them with an equal number of photos from a healthy tortoise. This allowed them to create a 3D model on the computer, which was then 3D printed in three parts out of PLA material. Each of the structure’s parts took about 50 hours to print. As the white shell looked a bit awkward, Brazilian artist Yuri Caldera gave it a more natural appearance by painting.
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