Determination of the Elasticity Modulus of Additively Manufactured Wrist Hand Orthoses

Abstract

The article describes the experimental and simulation research on the material properties of the individualized wrist orthoses produced in the additive manufacturing (AM) process by the fused filament fabrication (FFF) method. The authors produced a series of standard (normalized) samples for three-point bending from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) filament on a low-budget 3D printer and a series of samples in the shape of a fragment of the orthosis and the entire orthosis. All types of samples were subjected to experimental tests on a universal testing machine, which allowed us to determine the modulus of elasticity of the produced materials by comparing it with finite element method (FEM) simulation models in the ABAQUS environment. The adopted research methodology allowed us to compare the material properties of the material of the entire product—wrist hand orthosis (WHO)—with the material properties of standard bending samples. The obtained values of Young’s modulus are characterized by a large discrepancy between the standard samples and the entire orthosis. On the other hand, the samples with the shape of the middle part of the orthosis were similar in the value of Young’s modulus to the results obtained during the examination of the complete orthosis.

Study on Properties of Automatically Designed 3D-Printed Customized Prosthetic Sockets

“…Several various designs, including the openwork ones (compression/release-stabilized CRS sockets), are currently under consideration and further study. The authors also developed a new method of FEA-driven optimization of orthopedic equipment, described in previous studies [ 27 ]. This method could be potentially automated, in order to facilitate selection of appropriate wall thickness for a given patient and application.…”

“…In the optimization of the structure (e.g., wall thickness) it is possible to use appropriate numerical calculations. However, due to the complicated shape of some products and the complex stress system, the calculations necessary for each personalized product may prove to be an uneconomical approach for mass adaptation and will require simplifications [ 27 ].…”

Pollutants Emitted from 3D Printers onto Operators

“…Their prices are sufficiently competitive for people to be able to afford to buy them for home use-especially as it is not hard to operate them. Many of these printers, both with open and closed print chambers, are used in schools for educational purposes and in offices for training purposes [1][2][3]. People also use them at home for their own small-scale needs.…”

“…Three-dimensional printers are used to print objects with complex shapes that can be made easily, cheaply and very quickly using additive technology, which is not the case in subtractive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is used in many fields, including medicine, nanomedicine, radiology, surgery, diagnostics, prosthetics, and orthopaedics; that is, wherever individual adjustment of a single item and manufacturing time are very important [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Three-dimensional printers are used to print ankle orthoses, foot orthoses, wrist orthoses, prosthetic sockets (prosthetic alveoli) or mandibles.…”

Study on the Importance of a Slicer Selection for the 3D Printing Process Parameters via the Investigation of G-Code Readings

“…For about the last 20 years, extensive research has been carried out on the influence of various manufacturing process parameters on the strength and geometric properties of 3D prints [1][2][3][4][5]. Most of the tests have been conducted on the two most popular materials: PLA and ABS [6][7][8][9].…”