Is 3D Printing Changing The World Of Sports?

Technology has always played a major role in the development of sports. Equipment gets standardized, easier to produce, and more effective as materials and manufacturing techniques become more widely available or newly produced. One of the technological fields that has been booming, as of late, is that of 3D printing. Also known as additive technology, the ability to use tools with such precision to construct from a wide variety of materials is resulting in change across a wide range of fields and industries. Here, we’re going to look at how it is affecting the world of sports.

For players that have suffered injuries, ensuring the safest possible recovery is always a priority, but so too is helping them get back into the game more quickly. 3D printing’s uses in injury treatment and recovery are still growing, but one such use is allowing athletes to return to the game while still in recovery. The Cavendish Imagine Sports Mask, in particular, is able to scan protective masks that are fit to the specific measurements of an athlete’s face by scanning them.

These protective masks are already being used by athletes, with high-profile users such as Chelsea’s John Terry and Everton’s Francis Coquelin showing off the latest face gear from the UK-based 3D printing specialist. The ability of custom-fitted recovery gear such as the face mask not only allows players to return to action all the sooner but ensures that the recovery gear does not hinder them as much as other, less-well-fitting gear might.

The standardization of equipment in combat sports, be it MMA or boxing, is a critical aspect of those sports. Equipment altering can result in a much more dangerous punch, while fighters and their corners are always looking for ways to offer extra protection for their hands, allowing them to stay in the ring and in their careers longer without serious injury to their hands. The world’s first 3D-printed boxing glove, the Hayabusa T3D Boxing Gloves, may serve as an example of how additive manufacturing can offer a glove that’s both more protective yet effective in the ring, using 3D printed resin lattices instead of foam, the structure allowing them to absorb more of the impact for the puncher without diminishing the effect of the punch.

The ability of 3D printing to replicate complex shapes, even down to minuscule levels, is allowing it to replace a lot of options that, until recently, were considered the more practical solution.

From their hands to their feet, 3D-printed gear might be helping athletes of all kinds get the extra protection they need to be able to maintain their careers. In disciplines such as foot racing, the long-term damage that repeated impacts on the foot and ankle do is a serious concern. 3D printing is evolving alongside data-gathering technology to allow for much more customized and sophisticated support.

Orthotics specialists, phits, have started using a technique known as dynamic gait analysis that allows them to not only get a more detailed model of the individual’s foot, but also how they put pressure on it, how changes in their gait affect torsion, and where they might need additional cushioning. As such, the orthotics that they have been creating are offering a much deeper level of support, keeping the individual’s gait neutral, which can play a major role in reducing the foot and ankle injuries that can plague even the most experienced foot racers.

The above examples are just a few ways that 3D prosthetics are being used to create a safer sports world. Helmets, braces, mouthguards, and more as being custom printed to the specifics of the users to make a more comfortable, safer, and lighter fit.

3D-printed sports gear is already starting to play a major role in improving the safety of athletes, as shown in the examples above. However, it could well see future athletes breaking records and setting new ones, as well. In particular, 3D printing could see those that use vehicles reaching new heights. The clearest example of this is in cycling, where some teams are starting to experiment with replacing heavy metal bicycle parts with 3D-printed alternatives. 3D printing is allowing part manufacturers to explore making parts out of materials such as titanium but altering their structure so that they are much lighter than previously seen.

Improved aerodynamics in shaping and reduced material density means that vehicles such as bicycles are set to become a lot lighter and, as a result, a lot faster. If 3D printing is used more prominently in the design of gear like this, then it’s only natural that athletes using it might discover advantages that allow them to reach entirely new heights in their fields.

Another key field of sports technology development is how we are constantly opening the way to allow more people to compete. There have been all kinds of advances designed to improve accessibility in sports, and 3D printing is set to play a key role in that, as well. In 2016, we saw one of the most high-profile uses of the technology in the Summer Paralympics. In the case of Denise Schindler, the German cyclist, American software developers Autodesk and prosthesis provider Reha-Technik Wellmer, worked together to create a prosthesis that better matched the measurements of the athlete’s residual limb.

Of course, the implications of being able to use 3D printing to create prostheses that more accurately measure the needs of the individual go well beyond sports, it’s a massive improvement in quality of life in general. However, in the sports world, this also means that athletes who use prosthetics are able to do it in much-improved comfort, shrinking the barrier to entry and enabling them to continue to set new records.

The popularity of 3D printing only continues to skyrocket and, as such, we can expect its prevalence in all fields, including sports, to increase as well. What that’s going to look like and how it might change the standards of sporting equipment, we can’t yet tell.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)