During preparations for her second Olympic Games in 2016, Italian rower Sara Bertolasi began suffering intense pain due to inflammation around her pelvis. The long hours spent rowing on Lake Varese in northern Italy or training on a rowing machine had taken an unbearable toll.
The pain limited Bertolasi’s training and made her consider retirement. Around that time, however, she met Martina Ballerio, the manager of the 3D printing unit at Elmec Informatica, a technology firm based in the nearby city of Varese.
That conversation led to the custom design of a new seat for Bertolasi. She sat to have a cast made that incorporated the different phases of a rowing stroke, emphasizing the maximum effort position. Elmec then made a 3D scan of that cast and printed a prototype on HP’s Multi Jet Fusion printer.
“Even the very first time I sat on the first prototype, it was like, before I was wearing a pair of shoes my size, and when I was sitting on the model, I was wearing a pair of shoes made just for me,” Bertolasi said in Italian, with Ballerio translating for her.
Rowing seats are rarely custom and are usually made of a carbon composite. The seat Elmec made for Bertolasi is made from a thermoplastic called HP 3D High Reusability PA 12. This new material, combined with the personalized fit for her bone structure, made an immediate difference. Bertolasi said her pain has been cut in half.
“It was something that she could still put the force in the rowing and achieve the speed that she needs but also give her a little bit of flexibility to have less pain,” Ballerio said.
Elmec has iterated on the process and updated the original prototype. The engineering team also has designed different seats for the single scull Bertoalsi uses in individual training and the coxless pair she uses in competition. She rowed with Claudia Wurzel at the 2012 London Olympics and with Alessandra Patelli at the 2016 Rio Games, finishing in 10th and 11th places, respectively.
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, continues to seep into the sports world. The Rio 2016 Olympics featured 3D printed shoes, and additive manufacturing is gaining momentum in NASCAR and other domestic sports, too.
Elmec does not intend to make a business out of custom rowing seats but is working with other athletes. The company is the technology partner of the Alberto Contador Foundation, which includes the Kometa Cycling Team Continental led by 2010 Giro d’Italia cycling champion Ivan Basso. That project is split between research and development for performance and safety in the sport via 3D printing and also creating a safe, secure athlete data management system. The use of additive manufacturing also has great potential in Paralympic, or adaptive, sports, where custom equipment is common.
“We want to develop new ideas, new designs, and new methods,” Ballerio said. “This is what Elmec3D is trying to do as a company: to give them the tools to innovate their manufacturing process.”