3D printing of functional anatomical insoles

Abstract

Abstract. Anatomical insoles and additions have a corrective action on the footwear user. They are intended to reduce and adequately distribute plantar pressure among support points, thus minimising the stress these points can undergo. Such customised components have traditionally been manufactured by subtractive techniques, i.e. by milling a sheet of material. Latest advances in additive manufacturing (AM) techniques and, in particular, the popularisation of 3D printing by fused deposition modelling (FDM), have opened new ways for the production of anatomical insoles. These technologies allow additional functionalities to be added, as for instance the use of materials with antimicrobial properties, or, at a structural level, zonal control in 3D design to increase cushioning capacity. The latter cannot be achieved by traditional manufacturing techniques, in that the inside of the element is not accessible. However, there are no CAD tools available for the design and production of insoles, which are specifically oriented to take advantage of the benefits that AM can bring about. This paper describes a new methodology intended for the functionalisation of anatomical insoles through a systematic approach. On the one hand, internal structures are automatically obtained by parametric design; on the other hand, the 3D geometry of the insole or addition is adequately processed so that it can be printed by FDM, thus circumventing the constraints of this production technique. Industry. 2018Industry. , 95: 38-53. doi:10.1016Industry. /j.compind.2017 Keywords This is a previous version of the article published in Computers in 3D Printing of Functional Anatomical InsolesAbstract. Anatomical insoles and additions have a corrective action on the footwear user. They are intended to reduce and adequately distribute plantar pressure among support points, thus minimising the stress these points can undergo. Such customised components have traditionally been manufactured by subtractive techniques, i.e. by milling a sheet of material. Latest advances in additive manufacturing (AM) techniques and, in particular, the popularisation of 3D printing by fused deposition modelling (FDM), have opened new ways for the production of anatomical insoles. These technologies allow additional functionalities to be added, as for instance the use of materials with antimicrobial properties, or, at a structural level, zonal control in 3D design to increase cushioning capacity. The latter cannot be achieved by traditional manufacturing techniques, in that the inside of the element is not accessible. However, there are no CAD tools available for the design and production of insoles, which are specifically oriented to take advantage of the benefits that AM can bring about. This paper describes a new methodology intended for the functionalisation of anatomical insoles through a systematic approach. On the one hand, internal structures are automatically obtained by parametric design; on the other hand, the 3D geometry of the insole or addition is adeq...

Additive manufacturing and biomechanical validation of a patient‐specific diabetic insole

“…Cost of the manufacturing process is significantly reduced, according to the recent studies related to AM, as the elapsed time during 3D printing. The minimum cost of a CNC milled insole is $31.92, and additive manufactured insole is determined as $18.17 while cost of the developed insole is decreased down to $6.88 (one pair) . Additionally, FDM manufacturing method is accepted as slow when compared with other fast AM methods such as mask image projection‐based SLA (MIP‐SLA) or CLIP technology.…”

“…Nevertheless, optimized printing parameters provide to save a lot of time during the elastic filament printing. In this scope, time spent in manufacturing a pair of insoles is determined as 15 h for CNC milling and 10 h for AM while time spent is decreased down to 8 h and 9 m …”

“…Manufactured medical device is applied and observed during the recovery process by the podologist. This manufacturing method, vacuum foaming, is a handmade procedure that foam material is manually applied on a mold . Unlike the manual vacuum foaming approach, 3D insole models, obtained by means of a contact or non‐contact 3D scanner, are utilized in a computer controlled milling system, also known as digital manufacturing, in subtractive method to form the target medical equipment, that is, another insole manufacturing method and widely used by medical stores .…”

Design of Shoe Soles Using Lattice Structures Fabricated by Additive Manufacturing

“…The stiffness of the shoe sole can be more flexibly controlled. AM has been used in the field of footwear to produce shoes (Birtchnell and Urry, 2013), shoe soles (Choi andCheung, 2008, Carbon, 2018), and insoles (Davia-Aracil et al, 2018). Its layer-by-layer strategy permits the manufacture of complex, high-performance monolithic designs with varying performance zones within a single part.…”

“…Therefore, shoe soles with different stiffness zones can be easily fabricated by AM. Davia-Aracil et al (Davia-Aracil et al, 2018) reviewed certain computeraided design (CAD) methodologies for the design and manufacture of insoles by means of additive manufacturing techniques. Different two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) patterns are used in the heel area to incorporate new functionalities.…”