Application of Composites in Orthotic Calipers and its Experimental Validations

Abstract

Increasing population has led to numerous disabilities. One such disability which should be taken into account is related to human gait. Polio patients mainly suffer from this kind of disability due to which their muscles get weakened and they are unable to walk properly. The handicapped patients require an appliance with the help of which they can walk without any difficulties and the appliance acts as an aid for the correct positioning of their joints. Presently Aluminum Alloy based calipers are used but still the patients urge for better comfort. The requirement apart from more strength and stiffness, durability at lesser cost, environment friendly and light weight. Composite material is one such material which provides lower weight to volume ratio, high strength and stiffness at lesser cost. The purpose of the authors is to compare the mechanical properties of presently used aluminum calipers with polymeric thermoset based matrix (Carbon cloth with epoxy) based on CAD tools. The comparison reveals that thermoset based matrix will provide the maximum strength and firmness when compared to presently used Aluminum based calipers and model designed on CAD tools. Hence, the usage of the composite material will help the researchers design orthotic calipers which will have higher strength at a lower weight.