Additive Manufacturing of Personalized Ankle-Foot Orthosis

摘要

Additive manufacturing provides a digitized platform for designing and fabricating personalized orthoses and prostheses. This study explored additive manufacturing of personalized ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) method. Three AFOs were manufactured, one by the conventional approach using polypropylene (PP) and the other two by FDM using polycarbonate-acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (PC-ABS) and ULTEM materials. Experimental studies were performed to quantify the loading condition on the AFO by measuring the strain during a subject's walking gait. A finite element model was developed to inversely calculate both the static and dynamic loading during the gait cycle and predict distributions of stress and strain as well as the rotational stiffness, an indicator of rigidity and biomechanical function of an AFO. This study uses AFO as an example to present a methodology for design and fabrication of orthoses with desired properties and functionality based on additive manufacturing approach.