The Modeling and Development of 3D Printable Orthopedic Prosthetics
This project was worked on alongside a former student of Monmouth College: Max Balagna '19. The goal of this research project was to utilize the 3D printing ability students have here on campus, and create a working prototype prosthetic that someone could possibly use one day.
Background Information
The concept of using 3D printing to make every-day objects has become increasingly popular. The development of popular items and even expensive items can be at anyone's expense with just an SD card. Nowadays, people have developed methods in which we can print houses from sand 3D printers and we can even print weapons. The possibilities of using 3D printing are endless. When it comes to the medical field, 3D printing has just started to become popular. Replacement therapies for functional prosthetics are a revolution. Websites such as establishingthefuture.org provide coding and development for printable prosthetics and are open to the public. This publicly funded page takes requests from the public and uses a 3D printer to print specialty items. More specifically, they focus on the development of specialized prosthetics. Not only do the workers have the ability to print the prosthetics, but they also have coding for the individual pieces so the public can print them if desired.
Methodology
Monmouth College has three Prusa i3 3D printers that utilize F.D.M. printing, or fused deposition modeling. These printers use heat in order to print thermoplastic material. The filament is fed from a large coil through a moving heated printer extruder head, and is deposited on the building work. The print head is moved via computer control to define the printed shape inputted from the code. STL files were downloaded from a website called Thingaverse. The STL files are then converted into G-code for a software called Slic3r can break the STL files down and my partner and I could manipulate specific designs or print settings for the prosthetic. Once the manipulations have been made, the STL is converted into G-code for the printer to print the desired object.