Most wars have been good for invention, and Ukraine's might not be an exception. A small army of volunteer inventors stepped up their effort to create some things that the army needs.
Here are some examples:
A prosthetic hand
Denys Antipov, 25, a PhD student at Kyiv Taras Shevchenko University, is also a volunteer. He and other scientists are constructing a functional prosthetic hand.
It’s been over five months since the group started working on the prototype. The prosthetic hand consists of mechanical and sensor parts. The mechanical part is almost ready. The parts of the hand are printed on a 3D printer and attached to each other with the help of special engines that help them move. Now the team works on the sensor part. “And it is much more complicated,” Antipov says. The sensor part is supposed to transfer muscle signals from the living arm to the prosthetic limb.
The team lives on donations. “People give us some money for office supplies, even furniture was donated to us and delivered from different parts of Ukraine,” Antipov says. The office itself has been provided by Asnova holding for free.
The team plans to have the whole prototype ready by the end of spring. “But more than money – we need people with some hands-on experience in such projects,” Antipov says.
The project has a Facebook group and success reports are posted there on a regular basis. https://www.facebook.com/groups/narodnyi.protez/
Antipov says functional prosthesis for an affordable price is what Ukraine will need the most after the war that has killed thousands and injured tens of thousands more.
Ukraine provides prosthetic limbs for free, but they are not functional. “You just carry it around like a doll’s hand,” Antipov explains.
War gunsmith
The path from businessman to a professional gunsmith took just a few months for Kostyantyn Marchenko, 41, owner of a courier business from Kyiv. His office has now been redesigned into an arms workshop and he makes various adjustments for different types of guns used in the Ukrainian army. Marchenko says most of guns are simply old while others are just not convenient to use. “Small inconveniences can cost lives during the war,” he explains.
Now the man fine-tunes firearms, makes gunpoint and imager straps, recoil buffers and even provides locksmith treatment for guns to stop misfires.
“I once saw a video of soldiers attaching their brand new imagers provided by volunteers to their old Soviet guns and it shocked me, you cannot really shoot unless the imager or a gunpoint is attached properly,” Marchenko says.
The man says he first wanted to make a business of what he is doing, but gave up when saw how “boys go to war having nothing.” Now 30 percent of his output is being given away for free, and everything else is being sold for a very low price, the gunsmith says.
Marchenko was part of the Red Cross first aid brigade during the EuroMaidan Revolution in Kyiv and now has joined a volunteer committee for arms improvement.
Injury cases for Ukraine’s heroes
Oksana Polonchuk, 36, a mother of two, decided to help the army with what she does best – sewing.
Polonchuk has her own small atelier in one of Kyiv’s shopping malls and that is where she produces injury cases, specially designed zipper cases to cover injured limbs. The cases are Polonchuk’s own invention. The external fixation apparatus has to stay on for long months.
She was first asked to make such a case by a fellow volunteer. “I tires and later he called again to order 30 more cases,” Polonchuk says.
Each case is custom-made and is made up of three layers – the outside khaki waterproof layer, the thermo regulation inside lining, and a warm fleece underlay. “The patterns are pretty complicated,” Polonchuk says, but then she adds that she is ready to share them with those who want to start their production.
By now, the woman has made 70 cases.
“But I still want to know how I can improve them,” she says. There are cases for arm, leg, knee and even shoulder injuries in her portfolio. “Once I even made special trousers for a boy with both legs injured,” Polonchuk says proudly.
The project is fully crowdsourced. The cost of one such case is approximately Hr 90. But even more than financial help, Polonchuk is looking for soldiers her cases can help.
Please contact Polonchuk to help the project or get an injury case:
Phone number: +380679967436
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008417284573&fref=ts
