As a child, Guillermo Martínez imagined in his head the toys he wanted. Afterwards, he would meticulously draw them in a notebook with the intention of, one day, being able to create them. His parents, Mayte and Jose, preserve these pages as a treasure. It is for them the first proof that their son was predestined to become an inventor, a designer and a dreamer. Everything they proudly say is today. And it is that this 27-year-old from Madrid created in 2016 the first 3D printed arm for someone without an elbow and coined the term
trésdesis
to refer to prosthetic hands and arms made with that technology. In just five years he went from printing them in his room to setting up Ayúdame3D, an NGO that today distributes these pieces for free in more than 55 countries.
"It all started with a trip to Kenya," he says.
He says that at the end of the race he felt overwhelmed.
“The last course was difficult and intense.
I needed to disconnect ”.
A friend of his sister, Edurne - a journalist and five years older than him - had been to the Bamba orphanage in Kenya the previous year.
"He taught the children English, which is very important there, and it seemed like a good plan," he sums up from his small office in La Nave, Madrid.
Guillermo Martínez works with his computer in a 3D laminating program that is used to arrange the objects to be printed and define their properties.Ximena and Sergio
His idea was to carry a lot of printed toys, but his mind, always so creative and dreamy, wanted to go further. There had to be something he could really help with. He dived the web and found templates for 3D printing fingerless children's devices. "I asked at the orphanage if anyone needed something similar." They told him no, but that there were five people in the village who were missing an arm. So they sent him the needs and measurements of each case and, during the three months prior to the trip, Martínez spent hours locked up in his room designing, printing, testing, undoing and remaking prostheses. Until he created a prototype capable of opening and closing the fingers with a slight movement of the shoulder, elbow or wrist, depending on the model, called Vicky, Mery and Nelly. The movement of the elbow, for example,makes you pull the thread and it opens and closes your fingers. "I was looking for something very simple, without electronics, because, being for a place without technological resources, it should be an easy and cheap piece to repair."
He traveled to Kenya with a suitcase full of plastic parts that he had to reassemble upon arrival.
“I didn't know if trying prosthetics on people would work.
But they did. "
He still remembers the smiles of those people.
At that moment he understood all that he could contribute with his creation.
He recorded those first experiences in a mini-documentary that he posted on the internet to
crowdfund
and raise money to send more
trésdesis
.
Little by little they asked him for more copies, they contacted him from other countries and in 2017 he founded Ayúdame3D with two friends from the institute and his girlfriend, Laura Martín.
That's how it all started.
With the trip to Kenya.
A 3D printer manufactures the first layer of a palm and fingers for a right hand order for a child.Ximena and Sergio
Or maybe it was before. When he was little and his father often took him to a store near his work: Juguetrónica. "I could spend hours looking at those toys with the latest technology," recalls Jose on the other end of the phone. “Since he was a child, giving him gifts was very complicated because he didn't like normal things,” Mayte continues. He says that he made his own costumes and that the teachers said that he was always innovating. "At home we could not shoot any device, video or whatever, without their prior supervision," laughs the mother. “He had to check if this cable, screw or nut could be used for his creations. Everything was kept ”. And so, the youngest of the family turned the terrace into his construction workshop. "He dreamed of making a machine to create toys at home," laughs his father."And then 3D printers appeared ... The dream come true."
In 2014, when Martínez was 20 years old, the boom of 3D printers arrived.
“So they were very expensive.
But as of 2016 it began to democratize and I found mine on the internet for 150 euros ”, he recalls.
So for the final degree project he decided to incorporate 3D printing into the project: "I made a drone, but the entire cover was printed in 3D," he explains.
By the time he finished his degree, he was already an expert in using his little gadget.
And that first trip to Kenya came, the origin of everything.
Trésdesis Nelly, device for fingerless people, on the 3D printer that made it.
Ximena and Sergio
When he tells it, he drifts off the subject to explain something else that suddenly comes to mind. Then he returns to where he left off, but before finishing, a new thought comes to him. It will happen multiple times. Martínez justifies himself: "I have concentration problems since I was a child." He says that it has always been difficult for him to memorize or focus a lot on something. Except for two things: movies and playing the piano. Above all current music, such as Love of Lesbian, Vetusta Morla… “With that I can spend hours. The same thing happens to me now with the construction of arms and other
trésdesis
”. And it also happened to him as a child with the Legos. His father says that his collections would give for an exhibition.
When he returned from Kenya, he was hired by Juguetrónica. That store next to his father's work where he had spent so many hours as a child. “They made my eyes chiribitas. I would have almost worked for free, ”he jokes. Every afternoon, after a long working day, he would lock himself in his room to design and manufacture new prostheses, and review the orders he constantly received from
crowdfunding.
.
In the mornings, before going to the office, he would leave his two printers running.
They were in his room, with a camera connected to his cell phone, to make sure everything was fine.
And so he stayed for more than two years, until in 2019 he decided to quit his job.
“I thought: I'm 25, I live with my parents and I have savings.
I'm going to dedicate a year just to Ayúdame3D ”.
This is how he managed, at the age of 26, to turn his passion into his profession and become independent.
Guillermo Martinez director of Ayúdame 3D on his desk: Checking a "vicky trésdesis" that is intended for a person without an elbow.Ximena and Sergio
"By dedicating myself to the NGO 100%, it exploded."
Because he began to have time to meet with associations and companies and set up a whole financing gear for his
trésdesis
solidarity. “I could no longer live on donations. I needed a salary and a team ”. Today it has six employees. Among them, Natalia Salgado and Stephanie Lois, a biomedical engineer and biologist, are in charge of implementing the prototypes: making them lighter, waterproof, indestructible, or even aesthetic improvements, such as making them in shades similar to human skin. "Although we have had a special request inspired by the arm of Spiderman, for example, for a child," smiles Martínez, who today gives lectures and courses around the world, manufactures with his printers key chains and other gifts that they sell to companies and even it has a program with schools. All to raise awareness about how 3D and technology can help. "We have been the first to speak of technological social responsibility."
"I wanted a model in which volunteering would focus on
trésdesis
constructions
and funding would come from the other side." He has succeeded. It has a network of more than 100 volunteers (helpers3D). “We send them the material, the instructions to print and assemble each piece. Then, we take care of collecting the order and sending it to the destination ”. Despite being distributed throughout the planet, Kenya continues to be the origin of everything. That is why he returned to the orphanage in February 2020 with two printers and PLA (polylactic acid) to teach them how to make
trésdesis
there
. Nelson and Lydia, 18, take care of it. "When I went they didn't even know how to turn on a computer, and now they print arms," he says with satisfaction.
Colored coils: Material called PLA used to print any device in Ayúdame 3D.Ximena and Sergio
And here, in Spain, they no longer only manufacture
trésdesis
.
With the covid, they began to print face masks for health personnel that they distributed for free in centers throughout the country.
And now they just created covers to cover the chemotherapy bags of children with cancer.
Your mind never stops creating.
"Fate has brought me here," he reflects. It is what you have to look at the past from the present. That one already knows how the story ends. And what Martinez understood in his day as stumbles, today he sees as the detours that have brought him here. Like when he did not give the grade to enter Architecture and had to enroll in Industrial Organization. "Thanks to that I learned a lot about design, but also about technology business and leadership." Each time he removes his memories to retell his story, he discovers new indications that things could not have been otherwise. Like when in 2015 he got a scholarship to go to China for a month with Huawei. The project he presented in the contest talked about how technology could help in the future. "Among the examples,I was already mentioning the possibility of one day making arm and leg prostheses. That was before I had the 3D printer, before Kenya, before all this. And I am realizing at this moment that detail ”. As you speak, you understand that the idea was already floating in your head for a long time. More than he could see. "Fate has brought me here."