The 3D-Printed Prosthetic Disrupting a $10K+ Industry

Mark Wright left his shift as a San Diego Central Division police officer one day in March 2022, and his life changed forever. Departing at 3 a.m. on his personal motorcycle, he took his usual route: the 94 to the 15 to his Temecula home. But in the darkness, he didn’t see a Ford Mustang that had crashed in the middle of a curve ahead of him and was subsequently abandoned without any lights on. He broadsided the car and flew over 150 feet.

“I could tell my left leg and foot were badly injured, and I felt like I probably had a back injury,” he says. He was sent to Scripps Mercy Hospital and spent the next two weeks undergoing surgeries to treat a fractured pelvis and try to save his lower left leg, which eventually had to be amputated.

He wore traditional prosthetic legs—one fell off while riding a motorcycle once—for years until a friend told him about a lighter, more flexible, more affordable, and more versatile alternative that came out of a UC San Diego lab.

Limber Prosthetics got its start when co-founders Luca De Vivo Nicoloso and Joshua Pelz traveled to Ensenada with experienced prosthetist Herb Barrack (also a Limber co-founder) to provide limbs for amputees as part of a materials science class. As engineers, Pelz and De Vivo Nicoloso had a goal to optimize prosthetic production—and as human beings, they wanted to help patients overcome financial and comfort obstacles to wearing a prosthesis.

“This trip [to Ensenada] was the ‘light-bulb’ moment for me, turning the field of prosthetics from an engineering interest into a passion to engineer for good,” Pelz says. “Those trips are why access and dignity sit at the center of everything we do.”

As the students furthered their research, 3D printing turned out to be the panacea: It cuts down the cost and production time, utilizes innovative materials, and allows for digital twinning that leads to a more precise fit. Pelz actually built Limber’s first printer in his garage.

The UniLeg’s lattice-like form comes from the extremely lightweight and durable skeleton of a cholla cactus. 3D printed with a proprietary filament, it flexes under weight like a natural limb and holds up in water, mud, sand, snow, and waves—as proven by an 11-year-old amputee from Chula Vista, who was an early tester of the UniLeg.

“The real magic happened when he was able to wrestle his brothers in the sand, carry his surfboard into the ocean, make ‘sand angels’ to warm up after surfing, and then shower off the sand from his body and the UniLeg,” says Pelz, a surfer himself. “He’s a kid who got to go back to being a kid. No more worries about getting covered in mud or sand, no more watching his brothers get into the ocean without him. That’s the whole point of the company in one story.”

The “Limber Leg,” as wearers affectionately call it, is completely customized from socket to foot. A clinician uses the Limber Clinical App to scan an existing device, sometimes a temporary diagnostic device, to confirm correct fit and alignment. Next, the Limber team designs a device that is a digital copy of the existing socket. Then, it’s time to 3D print. Typical prosthetic legs are hand-carved, which dials up the time and financial investment, and encompass three to seven pieces. Limber’s 3D-printed material is a trade secret, an engineering-grade thermoplastic developed specifically for these prosthetic legs. Even though it’s monolithic—one printed piece—the prosthetic limb can have varying degrees of rigidity throughout. The foot can be more flexible, and high-impact zones can be more secure. Limber prostheses take about two weeks each to produce between design, quality control, printing, post processing—a breeze compared to the typical six.

Though various updates have developed over the years, transtibial prosthesis design has changed little since the 1950s, says Limber’s head of partnerships Austin Helton. The Px1—the updated, commercial version of the UniLeg—is the first of its kind, as far as its manufacturers know.

“Patients regularly tell us it’s the most natural-feeling device they’ve ever worn,” Pelz says. “We think that’s because the whole leg flexes the way a limb does, instead of the standard, stiff metal components. In this field, ‘I forgot I was wearing it’ is about the highest compliment there is.”

Courtney Wilkin, whose right leg was amputated below the knee after complications from a car accident at 17, wore traditional prostheses for nearly two decades before donning her UniLeg.

“When I put it on for the first time, I took one step and said, ‘Holy smokes, this is comfy!’” she laughs. “It was a perfect fit—right out of the box. […] I put on one of my old legs the other day and thought, ‘How did I think this was ever comfortable?’”

Limber went commercial in 2024 and now has 12 custom-built 3D printers at its Kearny Mesa facility. The company has produced about 800 prostheses in total and continues to provide below-the-knee prostheses to patients in Ensenada (funded by Calafia and Coronado rotary clubs). And they’re long-lasting: The first prosthetic limbs are nearing 5 years old and still being used in Mexico as daily devices. That would be the end of the lifespan for the average traditional prosthetic leg.

Though price varies depending on insurance, the Px1 can cost as little as $3,000, significantly lower than a traditional prosthesis that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. It comes in nine colors and can be configured for different activity levels.

Limber recently earned medical code verification—making it easier to bill insurance. The Department of Veterans Affairs is already outfitting veterans with Limber’s devices. Internationally, Limber is figuring out how to remove barriers to access in places lacking a prosthesis supply chain. Patients in Gaza and Ukraine are already wearing the Px1, and the Australian government wants to run clinical trials.

And it all started here. “The place shaped the product, too,” says Pelz. “Our earliest patients here were surfing and swimming in these things, and that shaped what we optimized for—water, sand, grit, all-day wear. We still print every device in San Diego, in-house. We are nothing if not a San Diego company.”

The post The 3D-Printed Prosthetic Disrupting a $10K+ Industry appeared first on San Diego Magazine.