Bionic Handling Assistant on show at London's Science Museum

Steve Sands, Product Management and Marketing Manager, Festo, says: "The Science Museum is a fantastic place to visit for a family day out. The 3D: printing the future exhibition is demonstrating how innovators are using 3D printers to turn computer data into physical objects and how that is changing our lives. Being part of this exhibit also supports our continuing Tomorrow's Engineers work, where we network to help inspire young people into careers in engineering.

"Our designers developed the Bionic Handling Assistant concept using a selective laser sintering process to produce its complex bellow structures. The benefits of additive printing released the team from the restrictions of traditional manufacturing processes, enabling them to produce the complex but ultra-light weight handling arm."

Everything about the arm is optimised, reducing the number of individual parts to the absolute minimum. Despite the relatively hard polyamide material used, the design achieves a very high degree of flexibility which, when combined, enables 13 axes of freedom - a crude approximation of the elephant's trunk that inspired the concept but an original idea for automation.

Steve Sands continues: "Why the focus on lightweight? Because it explores the concept of people working closely alongside robotic arms reducing fatigue, increasing productivity or eliminating exposure to dangerous or harmful activities."

Further information about Festo's Bionic Handling Assistant and the 3D: printing the future exhibition can be found at www.festo.co.uk/press/sciencemuseum and www.sciencemuseum.org.uk.