In the USA, materials and technologies based on the properties of hemp fiber are being introduced to the medical market
A feature of materials and products made on the basis of hemp that can be used in the medical field is the biological and physical properties of the plant. In particular, hemp fiber has a high strength-to-weight ratio, does not cause corrosion, has a high resistance to external stress and possible destruction, renewability and stability.
American Prosthetic Technician Kyle Trivisonno, who is currently the co-founder and CTO of Human Plant Solutions, is bringing products based on the physical properties of the hemp plant to the American prosthetics market. The main idea in the development of the company is the creation of environmentally friendly and economical prostheses, during the manufacture of which carbon or fiberglass is replaced by hemp.
According to the co-founders of Human Plant Solutions, the US has not yet formed an infrastructure for obtaining long technical hemp fiber, their enterprise is carrying out research and development work aimed at ensuring that in a year the technologies developed within the project, as well as finished prostheses, are manufactured using American hemp fiber and competed on equal terms with products that are already in use at the moment and based on the principle of using artificial fibers.
The first test prostheses from hemp raw materials were developed and manufactured by the employees of Human Plant Solutions in the research laboratories of one of the universities of North Carolina. -design work in collaboration with the University of Kansas and Kansas State University. One of the main incentives for moving to Kansas is the creation of production facilities for the primary processing of the fibrous part of the plant and the production of hemp fiber on an industrial scale.
Human Plant Solutions has already received grant funding to market their ideas from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Aviation Research and the US Department of Agriculture.
The company's technologists have created and patented an alternative to ultra-light expensive composites used in medicine for similar ones made on the basis of industrial hemp. In 2017, the first hemp prototype of a device was developed for highly active amputees below the knee, according to company management. It has already been tested for 4 years by Mark, a friend of Kyle Trivisonno, for whom a hemp prosthetic leg was made. Mark not only has been wearing a hemp prosthesis for 4 years, he has been wearing it in competitions for athletes who run long distances. In particular, Mark has competed in the Ironman and Boston Marathon. It was in this kind of conditions that the hemp prosthesis underwent extreme loads and demonstrated that the potential inherent in it, caused by the use of hemp raw materials, significantly exceeds the analogues made with the use of synthetic fibers.
Commentary of experts of the Association "Ukrainian technical hemp"
The use of raw hemp in various aspects of modern medicine is well known. Attention is drawn to the fact that in the most highly developed country in the world technologies are being developed aimed not only at using the therapeutic components of the hemp plant, but also at the physical properties of the fiber for the manufacture of various kinds of biocomposite materials used in modern medicine. For example, specialists from the Department of Biomechanical Engineering at the University of California are working on a project to make prostheses for athletes using hemp fibers. A feature of materials and products made on the basis of hemp that can be used in the medical field is the biological and physical properties of the plant. In particular, hemp fiber has a high strength-to-weight ratio, does not cause corrosion, has a high resistance to external stress and possible destruction, renewability and stability.