Volunteer BGU Engineer Is 3D Printing For IDF Soldiers
Volunteer BGU Engineer Is 3D Printing For IDF Soldiers
March 8, 2024
BGU Materials Engineering student Ariel Harush, created and manages a volunteer network of people with 3d printers – “3D Print 4 Israel”.
NoCamels — A Ben-Gurion University of the Negev engineering student, Ariel Harush, has a solution to the shortage of certain equipment for Israel Defense Forces soldiers – he prints it in 3D. And so far, he has produced tens of thousands of items for the troops.
Following the attacks by Hamas on October 7 and the ensuing war, Israel immediately called up 360,000 reserve soldiers. And as well equipped as the Israel Defense Forces are, there were nonetheless gaps in equipment as the hundreds of thousands of emergency troops scrambled to their units.
Ariel Harush, who is in his final year of a materials engineering degree at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and working as an research and development engineer at HP, soon found himself on the front line of a serious endeavor to supply the missing kit.
Rebuffed by his army commander when he tried to enlist for reserve duty on October 7 (he was told there were already too many reporting for duty), Harush, whose family hails from the communities bordering the Gaza Strip, was determined to do something to help the war effort.
“Unfortunately I know a lot of people who are not with us today,” he told NoCamels.
Pondering his position, he spoke to a friend who had been called up, who told him he needed a connector – a small part for his army radio that he could, if necessary, fashion out of a bottle cap. But Harush had a better idea.
“We printed a version of the radio connector and it worked well. I mean, it’s better than a Coca Cola cap,” he recalled. “It was just a small thing I could help with,” he said, “engineered specifically to the need.”
The next day, Harush was inundated with calls from IDF commanders who had heard about the connector he’d printed and wanted some for their own soldiers.
“I understood then it’s going to be something bigger,” he said.
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