scholarly journals Evaluating additive manufacturing for the production of custom head supports: A comparison against a commercial head support under static loading conditions

Author(s):  
Jonathan D Howard ◽  
Dominic Eggbeer ◽  
Peter Dorrington ◽  
Feras Korkees ◽  
Lorna H Tasker

The provision of wheelchair seating accessories, such as head supports, is often limited to the use of commercial products. Additive manufacturing has the potential to produce custom seating components, but there are very few examples of published work. This article reports a method of utilising 3D scanning, computer-aided design and additive manufacturing for the fabrication of a custom head support for a wheelchair. Three custom head supports, of the same shape, were manufactured in nylon using a continuous filament fabrication machine. The custom head supports were tested against an equivalent and widely used commercial head support using ISO 16840-3:2014. The head supports were statically loaded in two configurations, one modelling a posterior force on the inner rear surface and the other modelling a lateral force on the side. The posterior force resulted in failure of the supporting bracketry before the custom head support. A similar magnitude of forces was applied laterally for the custom and commercial head support. When the load was removed, the custom recovered to its original shape while the commercial sustained plastic deformation. The addition of a joint in the head support increased the maximum displacement, 128.6 mm compared to 71.7 mm, and the use of carbon fibre resulted in the head support sustaining a higher force at larger displacements, increase in 30 N. Based on the deformation and recovery characteristics, the results indicate that additive manufacturing could be an appropriate method to produce lighter weight, highly customised, cost-effective and safe head supports for wheelchair users.

Author(s):  
Lei Chen ◽  
Jeffery Plott ◽  
Matthew Hildner ◽  
Lillian Mei ◽  
Albert Shih ◽  
...  

Abstract Finger and partial finger amputations are one of the most frequently encountered forms of partial hand loss. Most of these amputees can benefit from prosthetic fingers, which should be both functional and aesthetic, to enhance rehabilitation by permitting a more normal professional and social life. Custom prosthetic fingers perform better than off-the-shelf ones due to better fit, comfort, and match to the patients’ physical characteristics. The conventional fabrication process for custom prosthetic fingers uses multiple impressions and molds combined with silicone injection molding to create the final shape. This process has not seen significant changes for decades and comes with a high cost and long wait time, stopping the prosthesis from benefitting the patient in a cost-effective, timely, and lifelike functional way. This study developed a new manufacturing approach for custom prosthetic fingers based on an additive manufactured custom thin-wall mold. The approach was based on optical 3D scanning of the amputees’ fingers and computer-aided design of custom finger prosthetic geometry and the corresponding thin-wall mold. Preliminary clinical study on an amputee patient shows the feasibility of this new custom molding approach and future work will clinically evaluate the performance of the prosthetic fingers created via the computer-aided design and additive manufacturing approach.


The choice of cost-effective method of anticorrosive protection of steel structures is an urgent and time consuming task, considering the significant number of protection ways, differing from each other in the complex of technological, physical, chemical and economic characteristics. To reduce the complexity of solving this problem, the author proposes a computational tool that can be considered as a subsystem of computer-aided design and used at the stage of variant and detailed design of steel structures. As a criterion of the effectiveness of the anti-corrosion protection method, the cost of the protective coating during the service life is accepted. The analysis of existing methods of steel protection against corrosion is performed, the possibility of their use for the protection of the most common steel structures is established, as well as the estimated period of effective operation of the coating. The developed computational tool makes it possible to choose the best method of protection of steel structures against corrosion, taking into account the operating conditions of the protected structure and the possibility of using a protective coating.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 5786
Author(s):  
Hwa-Jung Lee ◽  
Jeongho Jeon ◽  
Hong Seok Moon ◽  
Kyung Chul Oh

This technical procedure demonstrates a 4-step completely digital workflow for the fabrication of complete dentures in edentulous patients. The digital scan data of the edentulous arches were obtained using an intraoral scanner, followed by the fabrication of modeless trial denture bases using additive manufacturing. Using the trial denture base and a wax rim assembly, the interarch relationship was recorded. This record was digitized using an intraoral scanner and reversed for each maxillary and mandibular section individually. The digital scan data directly obtained using the intraoral scanner were superimposed over the reversed data, establishing a proper interarch relationship. The artificial teeth were arranged virtually and try-in dentures were additively manufactured. Subsequently, the gingival and tooth sections were additively manufactured individually and characterized. Thus, fabrication of digital complete dentures can be accomplished using digital data characteristics. The workflow includes data acquisition using an intraoral scanner, data processing using reverse engineering and computer-aided design software programs, and additive manufacturing.


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.


2018 ◽  
Vol Vol.18 (No.1) ◽  
pp. 96-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lam NGUYEN ◽  
Johannes BUHL ◽  
Markus BAMBACH

Three-axis machines are limited in the production of geometrical features in powder-bed additive manufacturing processes. In case of overhangs, support material has to be added due to the nature of the process, which causes some disadvantages. Robot-based wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is able to fabricate overhangs without adding support material. Hence, build time, waste of material, and post-processing might be reduced considerably. In order to make full use of multi-axis advantages, slicing strategies are needed. To this end, the CAD (computer-aided design) model of the part to be built is first partitioned into sub-parts, and for each sub-part, an individual build direction is identified. Path planning for these sub-parts by slicing then enables to produce the parts. This study presents a heuristic method to deal with the decomposition of CAD models and build direction identification for sub-entities. The geometric data of two adjacent slices are analyzed to construct centroidal axes. These centroidal axes are used to navigate the slicing and building processes. A case study and experiments are presented to exemplify the algorithm.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-86
Author(s):  
Dipesh Dhital ◽  
Yvonne Ziegler

Additive Manufacturing also known as 3D Printing is a process whereby a real object of virtually any shape can be created layer by layer from a Computer Aided Design (CAD) model. As opposed to the conventional Subtractive Manufacturing that uses cutting, drilling, milling, welding etc., 3D printing is a free-form fabrication process and does not require any of these processes. The 3D printed parts are lighter, require short lead times, less material and reduce environmental footprint of the manufacturing process; and is thus beneficial to the aerospace industry that pursues improvement in aircraft efficiency, fuel saving and reduction in air pollution. Additionally, 3D printing technology allows for creating geometries that would be impossible to make using moulds and the Subtractive Manufacturing of drilling/milling. 3D printing technology also has the potential to re-localize manufacturing as it allows for the production of products at the particular location, as and when required; and eliminates the need for shipping and warehousing of final products.


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):  
Brooke Mansfield ◽  
Sabrina Torres ◽  
Tianyu Yu ◽  
Dazhong Wu

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, has been used for rapid prototyping due to its ability to produce parts with complex geometries from computer-aided design files. Currently, polymers and metals are the most commonly used materials for AM. However, ceramic materials have unique mechanical properties such as strength, corrosion resistance, and temperature resistance. This paper provides a review of recent AM techniques for ceramics such as extrusion-based AM, the mechanical properties of additively manufactured ceramics, and the applications of ceramics in various industries, including aerospace, automotive, energy, electronics, and medical. A detailed overview of binder-jetting, laser-assisted processes, laminated object manufacturing (LOM), and material extrusion-based 3D printing is presented. Finally, the challenges and opportunities in AM of ceramics are identified.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 7895
Author(s):  
Runze Chen ◽  
Lixin Wang ◽  
Hongkai Zhang ◽  
Mengyao Cui ◽  
Min Guo

The split gate resurf stepped oxide with highly doped epitaxial layer (HDSGRSO) UMOSFET has been proposed. The epitaxial layer of HDSGRSO u-shape metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (UMOSFET) has been divided into three parts: the upper epitaxial layer, the lower epitaxial layer and the middle epitaxial layer with higher doping concentration. The research shows that the reduced SURface field (RESURF) active has been enhanced due to the high doped epitaxial layer, which can modulate the electric field distribution and reduce the internal high electric field. Therefore, the HDGRSO UMOSFET has a higher breakdown voltage (BV), a lower on-state specific resistance (RSP) and a better figure of merit (FOM). According to the results of Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) simulations, the FOM (BV2/RSP) of HDSGRSO UMOSFET has been improved by 464%, and FOM (RSP × Qgd) of HDSGRSO UMOSFET has been reduced by 27.9% compared to the conventional structure, respectively, when the BV is 240 V. Furthermore, there is no extra special process required in this advanced fabrication procedure, which is relatively cost-effective and achievable.


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