Open Bionics fits first above-elbow patient with 3D printed bionic arm

Open Bionics has pushed its 3D printed bionic arm into much tougher territory: above the elbow, where fit, articulation and weight make every gram and every joint matter. The company said Praveen Gowtham, a 43-year-old physicist from the Bronx, became the first person in the world to be fitted with Hero FLEX for above-elbow limb differences at its Midtown Manhattan clinic.

For Gowtham, the fitting marked a long-awaited jump from limited options to a functional upper-limb system he could use in everyday tasks. He had followed prosthetic technology for years and waited about a year while Hero FLEX was adapted for above-elbow use. Once fitted, he could hold his dog’s leash with both hands, grip tools at his workbench and open a drink can on his own for the first time. Open Bionics said he did not notice a delay between shoulder muscle flexes and the arm’s response, a key benchmark for myoelectric control.

That control depends on a stack of additive manufacturing and prosthetic engineering choices built around customization rather than mass production. Open Bionics said Hero FLEX starts with a 3D scan of the user’s limb, then turns that geometry into a bespoke Nylon 12 socket. The company says the socket is breathable, adjustable, compressible and removable, with a fully ventilated 3D printed design intended to improve comfort and reduce moisture buildup. The latest version uses multi-jet fusion, or MJF, 3D printing. Alongside the socket, the system uses myoelectric sensors, proportional speed control, grip modes and wrist rotation to handle both delicate manipulation and static holding.

The above-elbow milestone lands on top of a longer company arc that began in 2014, when Joel Gibbard and Samantha Payne founded Open Bionics in Bristol. The Hero Arm became its best-known product, and Open Bionics says it was the first 3D printed upper-limb bionic arm to receive PDAC approval under code L6880. The company also says its U.S. devices are fully PDAC approved for that code, and that its products are now available in more than 800 clinical locations across the USA, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

That broader footprint matters because above-elbow prosthetics have often been the hardest lift in upper-limb design, with weight, ventilation and wearability turning into daily barriers. By fitting Gowtham with Hero FLEX in Midtown Manhattan, Open Bionics showed how 3D printing is moving beyond hand-level devices toward more complex limb-loss cases, where customization is not a feature but the only way the hardware works.