Tortoise Gets a new 3D Printed Shell After Forest Fire

ErnieKey writes: Fred, a Red-Footed Tortoise in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil, was unfortunately caught up in a recent forest fire that deteriorated the majority of his shell. He needed a new shell in order to survive, so veterinarians in Santos teamed up with a dentist and a graphical designer to create a new 3D printed shell for Fred that was ultimately surgically placed on the tortoise. From the 3dPrint story: "Fred unfortunately came down with a terrible case of pneumonia post-surgery, which prevented him from eating for about a month and a half, but in the end survived and is now doing very well with his new 3D printed shell. The shell, which was printed with the same PLA material that is found on most desktop 3D printers, has been holding up very well, although researchers are not exactly sure how long it will hold up for or if Fred will be able to be released into the wild."

Comments

Mitch McConnell

[Tokolosh]

He seems to have lost his. Somebody print one, quick.

Re:Mitch McConnell

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Flamebait? Mitch McConnell has fans..!?!

Doesn't plastic burn?

[Anonymous Coward]

The turtle lost its shell in a forest fire, so they print him a new shell made of flammable material for the next time? His old shell saved his life, but his new shell might burn him alive if it catches fire. I don't know about all plastics, but I know some are very flammable.

Re:Doesn't plastic burn?

[Anonymous Coward]

Perfect is the enemy of good.

Re:Doesn't plastic burn?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it does, and that's not the only issue. PLA gets soft at even moderately high temperatures, to the point where you can't make stuff you'd want to keep in your car out of it, becasue it'll deform into uselessness on a hot day.

There are much better choices for this that are more fire resistant and just heat resistant in general. The advantages of PLA are that it's easy to work with, non-toxic, and cheap, but it's not well suited to the harsh conditions of the real world.

Re:Doesn't plastic burn?

[Firethorn]

There are much better choices for this that are more fire resistant and just heat resistant in general. The advantages of PLA are that it's easy to work with, non-toxic, and cheap, but it's not well suited to the harsh conditions of the real world.

In short, Fred's likely stuck in a Zoo for now.

Re:Doesn't plastic burn?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, and I believe PLA is flammable as well. To make matters worse a very hot day could make the shell plastic "The state not the name of the substance, meaning that it is not quite liquid and not suite solid". Seems to me a ceramic, epoxy, carbon fiber, or even an aluminum print would have been a better choice. So many options but they went with the cheapest. Maybe it was a cost thing? Still it's a good use for the technology.

Re:Doesn't plastic burn?

[tehcyder]

Perfect is the enemy of good.

Christmas cracker quotes are not the sum of human wisdom.

horrible thing to do

[iggymanz]

A tortoise's shell needs to grow, else it will eventually maim then kill him. These "helpers" are making a huge assumption about the future, maybe it would have better to just euthanize "Fred"

Re:horrible thing to do

[ganjadude]

as long as they dont plan on releasing him (they said they dont know if they can) it shouldnt be an issue. simply print a larger one as needed

Re:horrible thing to do

[TimSSG]

A tortoise's shell needs to grow, else it will eventually maim then kill him. These "helpers" are making a huge assumption about the future, maybe it would have better to just euthanize "Fred"

From the photos there is at least 4 parts to the shell. Looks like it is designed to break or separate if the tortoise grows longer or wider. Hopefully that will be enough to prevent death from growing bigger. Tim S.

Re:horrible thing to do

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you seriously stupid enough to think that the team of veterinarians handling the case didn't consider that? Seriously, google "Dunning-Kruger effect".

Re:horrible thing to do

[Oronar]

There are no plans to release him into the wild right now and he looks to be about full size for that species of tortoise already anyway.

Re:horrible thing to do

[iggymanz]

there is no "full size", they' grow until they die

Re:horrible thing to do

[rmdingler]

Sometimes, a thing thought clever in private maintains its inchoate appraisal under the scrutiny of the public eye.

Sometimes, the /. armchair expert knows more than a team of trained professionals.

It is one of those times.

Re:horrible thing to do

[Anonymous Coward]

You're right, anyone or anything that would face adversity is just better off dead. WTF

Re:horrible thing to do

[Firethorn]

I'm reminded of the 'gear in concrete' art display - a motor turns a gear that leads to 10 50:1 reductions in a row, with the last one being embedded in concrete.

While they certainly do grow, as an adult the question is 'how much'? If there's enough flex involved, there's room for the likely expansion over the rest of his life.

Also, it looks like the shell is printed with separation points that would allow growth, perhaps of shell underneath to replace the plastic.

Re:horrible thing to do

[HiThere]

I was wondering if, over time, his natural shell would underplate the artificial shell until it could just be allowed to weather away. Of course, this might well take awhile.

Re:horrible thing to do

[iggymanz]

Consider this, the average one reaches 12 inches, but reach over 18 inches, and ones on the order of 24 inches (and over 60 lbs) are occasionally reported. No one knows how long they live, either, though in captivity over 30 years is common.

Re:horrible thing to do

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's call it a tortoise soup, that's the best outcome for everyone involved.

Re:horrible thing to do

[Firethorn]

Consider this, the average one reaches 12 inches, but reach over 18 inches, and ones on the order of 24 inches (and over 60 lbs) are occasionally reported.

Which is why I said 'on average'. This turtle has already gotten 'lucky' once by having humans save him after his shell got scorched, rather than being stored upside down on a ship to be eaten by the crew.

PLA is biodegradable

[confused one]

PLA is biodegradable... That means it won't last very long if he is released. Certainly not long enough for an animal whose normal life expectancy is several decades.

Re:PLA is biodegradable

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, they were stupid enough to use a flammable plastic to build a new shell for a turtle that survived a forest fire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvg3u89EJwA

Re:PLA is biodegradable

[confused one]

They probably did. But, the article claims they are considering whether to release the tortoise or not. Clearly, they're not planning to release it.

Re:PLA is biodegradable

[Firethorn]

They probably 'considered it', piled up a bunch of points as to why it's not a good idea, and mentioned some of them to the writer of the article, who ran with it.

Re:PLA is biodegradable

[Tyrannosaur]

I'm pretty sure the rest of the tortoise is biodegradable too. You keep using that word- I do not think it means what you think it means

awwwww

[turkeydance]

i say awwww

Why 3d-print?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't a fiberglass shell have been more durable?

Re:Why 3d-print?

[phantomfive]

Wouldn't a fiberglass shell have been more durable?

Probably because they had a 3d printer handy and it was what they knew how to use.

Fred?

[swell]

My question to you is: Is Fred a common name in Brasil? Or is this another case of Americans imposing their culture on a primitive, unsuspecting people?

Re:Fred?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's short for Frederico, which albeit a bit on the uncommon side, it's a perfectly normal name.

Also, why the fuck are you calling brazillians "primitive", you mook? Does this look primitive to you?

Fuck's sake, this is why americans are hated globally, our ignorance is astounding.

Re:Fred?

[TeknoHog]

You should probably contact this site on the origin of names. Let them know that Fred (short for Frederick) is not really an ancient Germanic name, but a modern American invention.

Re:Fred?

[datavirtue]

We are revered globally and nearly every person on the planet dreams of crawling out of their current culture to strap on ours. What are you talking about? It is only in America where it is popular to hate America.

Re:Fred?

[HiThere]

Is it realy Germanic in origin? I thought it must certainly go further back than that considering that derivitives are common in Spanish, English, and German. I'm not sure about Italian. My suspicion is that the Lombards carried it into Spain, and they were hardly Germanic. (Of course, perhaps Ferdinand isn't really Fred, but I suspect that it is.) Various web sites list differing dirivations, but as many go back to Gothic roots as to Germanic, so my suspcion is that it goes to a common ancestral tongue. Do remember that dialects can change pronunciations, and small slips are to be expected rather than surprising.

Re:Fred?

[Tim the Gecko]

Is Fred a common name in Brasil?

Wikipedia has articles on Fred, Fred and Fred. All three are soccer players.

Re:Fred?

[swell]

"Also, why the fuck are you calling brazillians "primitive", you mook?"

I have family there who will read these posts. I take every opportunity to annoy them. Maybe some day they will come back to the US and I can annoy them face to face in the comfort of my home. But I'm happy to insult a few /. readers while I'm at it. (I had to research 'mook'; hey, that's not a nice appellation!)

Re:Fred?

[Antique Geekmeister]

Have you been to France, Palestine, Nicaragua, Cuba, North Korea, or the former Soviet Union in the last 50 years? Hating America has been a popular national policy for decades, if not centuries, in many countries around the world.

Re:Fred?

[weilawei]

Well, I guess today's mods don't get sarcasm. This should've been +1, Funny, not Troll.

Re: Fred?

[Anonymous Coward]

We'll all get to see how primitive it is during the Olympics, mainly any event on the river of pollution. They might be able to hide the massive ghetto from the cameras though.

"Prevented from eating for a month and a half"

[rmdingler]

So how long?

Get well soon Fred. Love, the Horta.

[ClickOnThis]

Was anyone else reminded of the Horta when they saw this story?

Not very stylish

[R3d M3rcury]

First off--White? It'll show all the dirt in a couple of months. Should have gone with black. Second, it's a freakin' tortoise. Irony is just calling out for racing stripes or flames or something like that.

I mean, come on guys! He lost his shell! If you're going to give him a new one, at least give him something that doesn't look like a dorky science project.

Re:Not very stylish

[Firethorn]

First off--White? It'll show all the dirt in a couple of months.

They had to perform the operation first, then have Fred recover from that. Right now they have artists lined up to paint the shell, with the added complexity that any paint used has to be both durable and not harmful to Fred. Remember, reptiles can have weird extreme reactions to chemicals humans tolerate just fine.

Think of it as an unstarted canvas.

Re:Not very stylish

[Anonymous Coward]

Racing stripes - Awsome idea!

Re:Not very stylish

[Antique Geekmeister]

Why should they paint it? If he's staying in captivity, he doesn't need camouflage, and it makes him far more noticeable for his caregivers or any fascinated schoolchildren who might want to see him.

Re:Not very stylish

[Kevin108]

But it IS a dorky science project!

Re:Not very stylish

[Firethorn]

The white shell does look odd. If he's to stay in captivity a non-standard paint job might be nice.

Another point - one of the things paint does is protect what's under it. It would increase the longevity of the plastic.

My plan

[Tablizer]

I want one also. And I want to be ninja, and hang out around Fukushima.

3d shells are for TORTOISES!

[Anonymous Coward]

You're all tortoises! Tortoises say... Nevermind.

Finally...

[argStyopa]

Now can someone start working on my idea of tortise and turtle shells with anti-vehicle mines embedded in them? Certainly, it will kill the turtle, but it will ALSO have the salutory effect of Darwinistically weeding-out the subhuman assholes that I have occasionally seen VEER TO HIT turtles making their way across an otherwise uncongested street.

Race edition?

[stone_horse]

I'd like one of these as well..going gokarting soon...

Wrong Material!

[Irate Engineer]

They should have made him a shell with Kevlar and a pressed layer of coated silica fiber, like the space shuttle TPS tiles. That turtle would be UNSTOPPABLE!

Re:Wrong Material!

[Anonymous Coward]

You are thinking that this tortoise will re-enter the atmosphere from space??

That is not your Dad's tortoise! Tortoises in spppaaaaaaacccccccceeee!!

Re:Wrong Material!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention fire-proof! :-)

And growth?

[eric_harris_76]

Guess I'd better RTFA. It may explain how he will be able to grow new natural shell by the prosthetic shell, after being released into the wild. If indeed he can.