Design and Additive Manufacturing of a Passive Ankle–Foot Orthosis Incorporating Material Characterization for Fiber-Reinforced PETG-CF15
The individualization of medical aids – in particular orthoses – is becoming increasingly important due to growing market trends. With the help of additive manufacturing processes, patient-specific properties can be taken into account quickly and flexibly. In particular, the combination of fiber-reinforced with design methods of topology optimization leads to extremely lightweight structures, which can be tailored individually to the patient and offer outstanding wearing comfort. However, there are currently no additively manufactured fiber-reinforced products that are used in the field of functional medical aids. Recently, an approach was presented at the Institute of Engineering Design, which shows how additively manufactured ankle orthoses can be designed and produced quickly and flexibly in the future.