Development of a Body-powered Hand Prosthesis with Flexible Materials by Additive Manufacturing

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Ana Maria Gomes
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/143719
• topic: Additive Manufacturing; upper limb prosthesis; body-powered prosthesis; flexible materials; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Outras Engenharias e Tecnologias

The research on prostheses made by Additive Manufacturing (AM) has been increasing, as they solve some of the issues of the most common prostheses. However, despite their growth, these prostheses have a high rejection rate, especially in children, due to their low level of anthropomorphism. The main goal of this study was to develop an aesthetically appealing three-dimensional (3D) printed body-powered prosthesis for a four-year-old child with a transverse metacarpal total deficiency. The development of the prosthesis started through an assessment of the anatomical features of the extremities of patient’s both upper limbs, performed with body casting, simple measurements and 3D-scanning of the cast. The whole prosthesis was designed using the Fusion 360 CAD software and produced using The Original Prusa i3 MK3S and polylactic acid (PLA) and Filaflex filaments. The prosthesis was designed through an iterative process, whereby the prosthesis’ appearance and functionality were optimised. During the design stages, several design configurations and printing settings were tested. Some printed models were evaluated using pull tests. The developed prosthesis possessed a high level of anthropomorphism, consisting of a solution that is quite similar to a human hand. Despite all the generated concepts focused on increasing the performance of 3D-printed body-powered prostheses, the developed prosthesis presented a low functionality. However, the device was cheaper and lighter than the existing 3D-printed body-powered prostheses. Moreover, the performed tests revealed that a better printing quality implied higher forces to flex the prosthesis and consequently, lower functionality. The final prototype was presented to the child and his family, which provided their feedback using the System Usability Survey and a custom-made assessment questionnaire. The resulting scores classified the device as "Excellent". Despite being promising, further work is still required for this device to be used by children with upper limb defects.