Introducing the VC200 Prosthesis

In the last two and a half years, the Victoria Hand Project has come a long way. With print centers in six countries and approximately 75 users fit with different versions of the Victoria Hand, the team and our partners have been kept busy!

With so many people using our VC187 hand, we have received a lot of helpful feedback on how to best improve the design. We have accumulated these suggestions and used them to create the newest version of the Victoria Hand, VC200.  Some of the major improvements incorporated into the VC200 hand are:

Improved overall hand aesthetics

Accurate skin tone matching painting process

Improved functionality (back lock, wrist, hand closure/range, stronger fingers)

Simplified assembly process

One of the recurring suggestions was to make our prosthesis look even more like a real human hand. Through laser scanning and photogrammetry software, we have modeled the VC200 hand on scans of real hands. This change is particularly evident in the palm, fingers and thumb which all look less cubic and even include features such as knuckles and fingernails.

The other major improvement in the resemblance of the prosthesis to a real human hand is by utilising a new painting process to match skin tone. By matching a sample color card with the skin tone of the user, we can custom paint the prostheses with a colour that resembles their skin tone. Additionally, our new spray gun paint system eliminates the need for aerosols which could not be shipped and were difficult to source in some of our partner countries.

Many changes have been made to improve the functionality of our prostheses which have culminated in VC200. Firstly, the fingers have been reduced to two links as opposed to the previous three links. This update improves finger strength and reduces unwanted side to side motion while maintaining the range of closure of the hand. This change also decreases assembly time significantly. The wrist ball size and pattern has been updated so that it does not slip, even when holding heavy objects. The back-lock module has decreased in size and is now much smoother to actuate. The fingertips have also undergone significant changes. The new fingertips are 3D-printed using Flexifil filament which, as the name suggests, is slightly flexible. This change eliminates the need for polyurethane, which expires very quickly and also requires a 24 hour moulding process.

Now that the design is finished, we plan to thoroughly test the hand and begin printing in our print centers as soon as possible!