Transactions of FAMENA, Vol. 48 No. 2, 2024.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21278/TOF.482043222
Design and Production of the Splint Using Reverse Engineering and Additive Manufacturing
Marina Grabar Branilović
; Development and Educational Centre for the Metal Industry – Metal Centre Čakovec, Čakovec, Croatia
*
Perica Hajdarović
; Technical School Čakovec, Čakovec, Croatia
Anđela Ban
; Faculty of Graphic Arts, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivana Mihalic Pokopec
; Technical School Čakovec, Čakovec, Croatia
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Limbs that have suffered a fracture are usually immobilized with heavy and non-breathable plaster casts. Such immobilization limits the patient's movement, makes showering difficult, and results in excessive itching, sweating, skin rash, and infection. Such conditions also encourage bacterial growth. In addition, any prolonged wearing of a cast can lead to joint and ligament injuries. Such problems can be overcome by using custom-made splints that are becoming more feasible due to additive manufacturing. The advantage of such splints is their lightness and customized and attractive design. The aim of this study is to show how additive manufacturing (AM) technology can be used in medicine, more precisely, in the conservative treatment of forearm fractures. Forearm fractures have been chosen because they are the most frequent injuries. The study focuses on the process of making a splint from idea to realization, i.e., on the design and printing of the splint. Thus, a procedure for a customized production of 3D printed splints is proposed. First, the geometry of the hand was obtained using a 3D optical scanner. With the process of reverse engineering, the obtained CAD model was modified and prepared for 3D printing. Despite all the advantages of these splints, the main disadvantage of such a process that includes 3D modelling and AM is that the process is still time-consuming and expensive.
Keywords
3D digitizing; fused deposition modelling (FDM); hand splint; optical 3D scanning; reverse engineering; stereolithography (SLA)
Hrčak ID:
316388
URI
Publication date:
25.2.2024.
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