PSYONIC’s Agile Manufacturing: Making Bionic Hands Affordable and Accessible

“One of the reasons we were able to make our hand much more accessible – expanding access from only 10% of patients to 75% — was that we were able to dramatically lower the cost of production for our hands. And one of the big components of that was 3D printing.”

Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, Founder and CEO, PSYONIC

When PSYONIC first introduced the Ability Hand, its goal wasn’t simply to build a faster or more capable bionic limb — it was to make one that more people could actually afford and access. That ambition came with a hard set of constraints: durability, low weight, fine tolerances, and strict cost targets driven by insurance and Medicare coverage. In just a few short years, and with the help of cutting-edge tools like Formlabs 3D printers, PSYONIC has made real progress toward that goal. 

Since we last spoke with PSYONIC in 2022, they’ve grown from a seven-person team in Illinois to over 50 in San Diego, scaling in-house manufacturing by more than 5x, building partnerships, and adding features to the Ability Hand, the fastest bionic hand on the market. 

That growth has been enabled by an agile production model built around rapid iteration, vertical integration, and flexible tooling. In-house 3D printing has allowed PSYONIC to move quickly between prototyping, tooling, and end-use production while keeping costs low and quality high.

“3D printing enabled our entire company to happen and it was critical to our formation. We've gone through over nine generations of the Ability Hand, and they've all been in various forms of 3D printing throughout the years, including the first four or five that were fully 3D printed. And that lowered the barrier of entry to us.”

Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, Founder and CEO, PSYONIC

PSYONIC’s Ability Hand is a light, durable bionic hand and the first to offer touch feedback. Currently used by over 250 people in addition to robots at more than 50 of the top industrial robotics companies including NASA, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Hexagon, the Ability Hand is accessible to patients and covered under Medicare. In-house 3D printing is part of PSYONIC’s vertical integration, and lowers costs, helping to make the Ability Hand more affordable while allowing for faster iterations.

Dale DiMassi, Creative Marketing Manager at PSYONIC, demonstrates touch feedback with a specially made clear Ability Hand.

The palms of the clear hand are 3D printed in BioMed Durable Resin and LEDs show the finger feedback, transferred to the user as vibrations.

PSYONIC works with more than 50 of the top robotics companies, including NASA, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Hexagon.

Feedback from human Ability Hand users also drives robotics applications — fueling innovation.

Durability, cost, and weight are key when choosing materials for the hand. Akhtar says, “We are always rapidly prototyping and trying all sorts of different materials from 3D printed materials to composites to different silicones, checking things like tear resistance and how brittle it is and how impact resistant these materials are. But also, how accessible is it? Can we build many of them at a cost low enough that we can still get Medicare to cover it?” 

Weight is important; the Ability Hand needs to be lighter than a human hand, which is about 520 grams. Aadeel says, “Once you place it on a socket that you put your arm inside, it can feel almost twice as heavy. So we want to make sure that we can give our users the performance they need.” Partially due to the lightweight 3D printed materials, the Ability Hand weighs in at just 490 grams.

Cost is key when it comes to accessibility. PSYONIC has expanded access from only 10% of insured individuals to 75% of insured individuals by keeping costs low. Cost-efficiency comes from agile, in-house manufacturing, and from careful selection of materials. 

Durability ensures that the Ability Hand has longevity, which is important for medicare coverage and protecting the technology required to deliver the touch sensitivity and feedback.

“Carrying groceries or carrying around sandbags, the hand doesn't really give out or fatigue. It's able to carry that weight comfortably and the hand holds up to it. I've also done some demonstrations with the hand showing what it's like pushing it to the limits. We've played baseball with it, punched through boards, done karate demonstrations and weightlifting — I lifted a 90 pound kettlebell with the hand. And so there's this whole range of things from just the mundane carrying groceries to the more extreme stuff where you're really pushing the limits of what the hand can do.”

- Dale DiMassi, Creative Marketing Manager, PSYONIC

Austin shows prototypes in different Formlabs SLA materials. From left to right, Tough 1500 Resin, Rigid 10K Resin, Tough 1500 Resin, and BioMed Durable Resin.

“Using Formlabs materials was really critical for us to rapidly iterate on the different internal components of the hand, especially as we started with FDM and couldn't get the fine tolerances that we needed putting together really small gears and motors in a compact space.”

Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, Founder and CEO, PSYONIC

Resins including Tough 1500 Resin, Tough 2000 Resin, BioMed Durable Resin, and Rigid 10K Resin enable PSYONIC to develop molds and internal components that are impact-resistant or heat-resistant. “The hands that we had done flaming board breaking with and arm wrestling with all had Formlabs-printed components inside of them, and it was really a testament to the strength of the materials and what we could do with them,” says Akhtar.

PSYONIC has always manufactured the Ability Hand in-house, and this hasn’t changed as they’ve grown — though what manufacturing looks like has. 

At the beginning of 2025, PSYONIC was manufacturing about 20 hands a month. Eight months later, they’d quintupled production — and production is continuing to grow as PSYONIC strives to deliver Ability Hands to the 10 million people who are missing hands all across the world, as well as meet the growing demand for hands for robotics.

PSYONIC’s San Diego manufacturing floor includes room for continued growth.

To keep costs low, there is a constant reevaluation of what parts are going to be outsourced and what parts will be produced in-house. Some molds, which were originally 3D printed, were later outsourced and machined from acrylic. However, the benefit of agile production in-house means that design changes to the parts or vendor issues don’t impact production. 

Jigs for assembly, such as those pictured below in Tough 1500 Resin, are 3D printed, with Austin reprinting jigs as new ones are needed. The ability to 3D print manufacturing aids streamlines production and shortens timelines compared to outsourcing parts. Plus, changes due to new versions or workflows can easily be implemented by printing, rather than waiting for outsourced parts.

Jigs are 3D printed on Form 4 in Tough 1500 Resin, a material with strength, stiffness, and toughness comparable to polypropylene (PP).

In addition to iterating and scaling production of accessible hands, PSYONIC is rapidly working towards the next generation of bionic limbs — including wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles — plus implanted electrodes and osteo-integration, which will allow much finer control and sensation. 

Akhtar says, “We're going to unlock a new generation of bionic limbs that are directly controlled by your thoughts. The advancements we make on the human side can teach the robots how to do things better, as well — it's a symbiotic relation between the two.” 

Explore Formlabs 3D printers or contact sales to learn more, or request a free sample part to evaluate Formlabs materials for yourself.

In addition to making the Ability Hand the most accessible hand on the market, PSYONIC has established the Ability Fund, which works through the Range of Motion Project to donate limbs and clinical services to people with a limb difference. Learn more about the Ability Fund here.