A new methodology for design and manufacturing of a customized silicone partial foot prosthesis using indirect additive manufacturing

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 645-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osama Abdelaal ◽  
Saied Darwish ◽  
Khaled Abd Elmougoud ◽  
Saleh Aldahash

The production of customized prostheses for the foot and ankle still relies on slow and laborious steps of the traditional plaster molding fabrication techniques. Additive manufacturing techniques where three-dimensional objects can be constructed directly based on the object’s computer-aided-design data in a layerwise manner has opened the door to new opportunities for manufacturing of novel and personalized medical devices. The purpose of the present study was to develop a new methodology for design and manufacturing of a customized silicone partial foot prosthesis via an indirect additive manufacturing process. Furthermore, the biomechanics of gait of a subject with partial foot amputation wearing the custom silicone foot prosthesis manufactured by the indirect additive manufacturing was characterized, in comparison with a matched healthy participant. This study has confirmed the possibility of producing silicone partial foot prosthesis by indirect additive manufacturing procedure. The amputated subject reported total comfort using the custom prosthesis during walking, as well as cosmetic advantages. The prosthesis restored the foot geometry and normalized many of gait characteristics. The findings presented here contribute to introduce a proper understanding of biomechanics of walking after wearing silicone partial foot prosthesis and are useful for prosthetists and rehabilitation therapists when treating patients after partial foot amputation.

Author(s):  
L Q Tang ◽  
D N Moreton

The timing scroll is an important feeding mechanism on packaging lines. As packaging line speeds have increased and the shape of containers has become more diverse, the techniques used for the design and manufacture of such timing scrolls have become critical for successful packaging line performance. Since 1980, various techniques have evolved to improve scroll design, manufacture and the associated line performance. In recent years, as CAD (computer aided design), CAM (computer aided manufacture) and CNC (computer numerical control) techniques have evolved, scroll design and manufacturing techniques began to be linked with computer techniques. In this paper, a scroll design and manufacturing package is presented which can be run on a minicomputer, such as a μ-VAX on an IBM PC clone. This scroll package can produce a timing scroll for any type of container with a correct pocket shape and good dynamic characteristic. Tests using carefully chosen containers have been made using this package and the results indicate that the scrolls obtained by this package have the correct pocket shape and good line performance. However, the design of a good pick-up geometry for some container shapes remains a problem.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiktoria Maria Wojnarowska ◽  
Jakub Najowicz ◽  
Tomasz Piecuch ◽  
Michał Sochacki ◽  
Dawid Pijanka ◽  
...  

Purpose Chicken orthoses that cover the ankle joint area are not commercially available. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to fabricate a customised temporary Ankle–Foot Orthosis (AFO) for a chicken with a twisted ankle using computer-aided design (CAD) and three-dimensional (3D) printing. The secondary objective of the paper is to present the specific application of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in veterinary medicine. Design/methodology/approach The design process was based on multiple sketches, photos and measurements that were provided by the owner of the animal. The 3D model of the orthosis was made with Autodesk Fusion 360, while the prototype was fabricated using fused deposition modelling (FDM). Evaluation of the AFO was performed using the finite element method. Findings The work resulted in a functional 3D printed AFO for chicken. It was found that the orthosis made with AM provides satisfactory stiffen and a good fit. It was concluded that AM is suitable for custom bird AFO fabrication and, in some respects, is superior to traditional manufacturing methods. It was also concluded that the presented procedure can be applied in other veterinary cases and to other animal species and other parts of their body. AM provides veterinary with a powerful tool for the production of well-fitted and durable orthoses for animals. Research limitations/implications The study does not include the chicken's opinion on the comfort or fit of the manufactured AFO due to communication issues. Evaluation of the final prototype was done by the researchers and the animal owner. Originality/value No evidence was found in the literature on the use of AM for chicken orthosis, so this study is the first to describe such an application of AM. In addition, the study demonstrates the value of AM in veterinary medicine, especially in the production of devices such as orthoses.


Author(s):  
Neeraj Panhalkar ◽  
Ratnadeep Paul ◽  
Sam Anand

Additive manufacturing (AM) is widely used in aerospace, automobile, and medical industries for building highly accurate parts using a layer by layer approach. The stereolithography (STL) file is the standard file format used in AM machines and approximates the three-dimensional (3D) model of parts using planar triangles. However, as the STL file is an approximation of the actual computer aided design (CAD) surface, the geometric errors in the final manufactured parts are pronounced, particularly in those parts with highly curved surfaces. If the part is built with the minimum uniform layer thickness allowed by the AM machine, the manufactured part will typically have the best quality, but this will also result in a considerable increase in build time. Therefore, as a compromise, the part can be built with variable layer thicknesses, i.e., using an adaptive layering technique, which will reduce the part build time while still reducing the part errors and satisfying the geometric tolerance callouts on the part. This paper describes a new approach of determining the variable slices using a 3D k-d tree method. The paper validates the proposed k-d tree based adaptive layering approach for three test parts and documents the results by comparing the volumetric, cylindricity, sphericity, and profile errors obtained from this approach with those obtained using a uniform slicing method. Since current AM machines are incapable of handling adaptive slicing approach directly, a “pseudo” grouped adaptive layering approach is also proposed here. This “clustered slicing” technique will enable the fabrication of a part in bands of varying slice thicknesses with each band having clusters of uniform slice thicknesses. The proposed k-d tree based adaptive slicing approach along with clustered slicing has been validated with simulations of the test parts of different shapes.


3D Printing ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 154-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasheedat M. Mahamood ◽  
Esther T. Akinlabi

Laser additive manufacturing is an advanced manufacturing process for making prototypes as well as functional parts directly from the three dimensional (3D) Computer-Aided Design (CAD) model of the part and the parts are built up adding materials layer after layer, until the part is competed. Of all the additive manufacturing process, laser additive manufacturing is more favoured because of the advantages that laser offers. Laser is characterized by collimated linear beam that can be accurately controlled. This chapter brings to light, the various laser additive manufacturing technologies such as: - selective laser sintering and melting, stereolithography and laser metal deposition. Each of these laser additive manufacturing technologies are described with their merits and demerits as well as their areas of applications. Properties of some of the parts produced through these processes are also reviewed in this chapter.


Author(s):  
Andrew J. Birnbaum ◽  
Athanasios P. Iliopoulos ◽  
John C. Steuben ◽  
John G. Michopoulos

Despite increasing levels of acceptance, traditional additive manufacturing techniques continue to suffer from a number of fundamental drawbacks that act to limit broad adoption. These drawbacks include limits on processable materials, part properties/performance, geometric deviation and repeatability. The vast majority of existing processes also rely on a point-by-point approach to generate parts, resulting in exceedingly long build times and extremely poor scaling behavior. Furthermore, in general, current systems require significant levels of complexity for operation, resulting in the need for considerable upfront capital investment as well as continuing maintenance costs. A new manufacturing approach is presented here, based upon the generation of objects from the direct creation of constituent volumetric sub-regions. This process addresses many of the limitations described above, and has the potential to significantly alter the manner with which three-dimensional objects are realized.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Prabhu ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Nicholas A. Meisel

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) processes present designers with unique capabilities while imposing several process limitations. Designers must leverage the capabilities of AM — through opportunistic design for AM (DfAM) — and accommodate AM limitations — through restrictive DfAM — to successfully employ AM in engineering design. These opportunistic and restrictive DfAM techniques starkly contrast the traditional, limitation-based design for manufacturing techniques — the current standard for design for manufacturing (DfM). Therefore, designers must transition from a restrictive DfM mindset towards a ‘dual’ design mindset — using opportunistic and restrictive DfAM concepts. Designers’ prior experience, especially with a partial set of DfM and DfAM techniques could inhibit their ability to transition towards a dual DfAM approach. On the other hand, experienced designers’ auxiliary skills (e.g., with computer-aided design) could help them successfully use DfAM in their solutions. Researchers have investigated the influence of prior experience on designers’ use of DfAM tools in design; however, a majority of this work focuses on early-stage ideation. Little research has studied the influence of prior experience on designers’ DfAM use in the later design stages, especially in formal DfAM educational interventions, and we aim to explore this research gap. From our results, we see that experienced designers report higher baseline self-efficacy with restrictive DfAM but not with opportunistic DfAM. We also see that experienced designers demonstrate a greater use of certain DfAM concepts (e.g., part and assembly complexity) in their designs. These findings suggest that introducing designers to opportunistic DfAM early could help develop a dual design mindset; however, having more engineering experience might be necessary for them to implement this knowledge into their designs.


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