It is fitting that the first artificial limb Mat Bowtell made was in the colours of Iron Man.

Like Iron Man, Mat doesn’t wear a cape. And like Iron Man, Mat is a hero in his spare time.

Mat Bowtell makes limbs for people, and he doesn’t charge any money for it.

In fact it costs him money to do it, but he just wants to help others who can’t afford prosthetics.

Mr Bowtell works at Toyota’s Altona plant as an engineer.

The plant is due to shut down later this year, so he was searching for a new project.

He was fascinated by robotics, studying them while he was in Japan, where he saw a robotic hand had the potential to change lives – for those who could afford the price tag: $1,000,000.

Even for $1000 a new hand would be out of the range of many people. So he had an idea – he would teach himself how to make prosthetic hands.

He spent $5000 on a 3D printer, scanner and software. His first recipient was a four-year-old boy in Newcastle, NSW – the one who wanted the Iron Man hand.

It worked. The hand not only fitted, it allowed the boy to pick up objects, ride a bike, throw a ball.

He made two more hands for others in need – people he didn’t know who had heard about him and asked for help.

A friend in Japan had lost a finger in an accident. That started Mat’s next project, designing a finger that can be slipped on like a glove. It costs $1 to make.

The Kinetic Finger allowed Mat’s friend to play guitar again. Rather than mass produce or licence the product and potentially make himself a tidy sum, Mat made the design available to anyone via the Web, for free.

He is continuing to make hands, most recently for Kalani and Lilli, as you can see in our story.

Mat’s next step is to make this life-changing technology available around the world. He particularly wants to help victims of war, and he is currently making a 3D arm for a girl in Iraq.

You can help him by going to www.mycause.com.au and look for “3D Printed Hands”.