Mr Jarkiewicz said that it is only the second time in the world, and a first in Europe,
that a 3D printer has been used to construct a bird’s beak.
Now languishing in Warsaw zoo, the penguin lost its lower beak in a fight or fall a month ago,
and zoo keepers say that without a new bill the animal’s chances of survival are slim
as it can no longer preen or feed itself.
But the chance intervention of a firm distributing 3D printers may have saved the penguin.
“We had gone to the zoo to see if they could use any of our 3D technology,
and didn’t know anything about the bird at first,” Bartek Jarkiewicz, from the firm MTT Polska
and the man in charge of the beak project, told The Telegraph. “Then they said they had a penguin
with a problem and asked if we could come up with a new beak.”
Scientists from Omni3D, a Polish producer of printers, have made a 3D scan of a dead penguin’s beak
in order to get an idea of the shape and dimensions needed, and plan to produce the first beak,
made out of a high-tech eco-plastic, next week. They are also prepared to make a number of beaks in case the first one falls off
or the material proves unsuitable.
The deteriorating state of the remnants of the penguin’s beak has also made the task of fitting
a prosthetic beak harder.
Mr Jarkiewicz said that it is only the second time in the world, and a first in Europe,
that a 3D printer has been used to construct a bird’s beak. In 2012 a bald eagle in the United States
was the first bird to receive a prosthetic beak produced by a 3D printer.
How awesome is this?! 3D printers rock!
Long live the penguin!
