Prosthetic Socket Design for Fused Deposition Modeling

Abstract

This graduation project was started on the observation that most orthopaedic companies seem to be still far away from producing 3D printed sockets for customers. Research into manual and digital manufacturing methods resulted in an overview of the possibilities for integrating digital tools into the socket production process. Together with the finding that FDM is a cheap and fast 3D printing method, for which sufficiently strong filaments are now available, the choice to design a socket that is printable with FDM, by an orthopaedic company, was made. The proposed production process, combining manual and digital production activities, has succesfully been applied in its entirety in cooperation with a prosthetic engineer for an actual user. Four socket designs have been designed in consecutive iterations, each one being a significant improvement on the previous one. Printing time was reduced from 45 hours to 15 hours. Assembly time has been reduced from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Socket durability has increased from 4 minutes, to 10 days, to 33 days of use. The final design is designed using material efficiently, decreasing peak stresses by 60% while only adding 20% of weight in reinforcement.