Design of Personalized Orthoses with Support of PTC Creo and FDM Technology

The proposed research was focused on the development of a personalized wrist orthosis using PTC Creo for design and FDM technology for manufacturing. The innovation in this approach is the production of the orthosis in an unfolded state, which allows for faster and more efficient production with a lower risk of orthosis breakage due to insufficient adhesion of the layers. The design utilizes a 2.5D Octagonal lattice structure of 40 × 40 mm, rotated by 40°, which contributes to the lightweight of the orthosis while maintaining its strength. Printing the orthosis in its unfolded state also significantly shortened the orthosis fabrication process by 47.78% compared to standard printing oriented normal to the build plate. After the physical model was fabricated, the orthosis was heated above glass transition temperature for 60 s and then formed directly onto the patient’s hand, which took approximately 10 s. This forming process was considered simple and intuitive, as well as comfortable. The orthosis provided sufficient strength and the comfort of wearing it was positively assessed. Findings indicated increased orthosis integrity when printing in the unfolded state, a significant improvement over standard FDM printing. The benefits are innovative design, improved efficiency of the manufacturing process, and increased quality and wearing comfort of the brace. Suggested future research includes testing the durability of the brace with different thicknesses, comparing it with FEA analysis, and exploring the potential of using different materials and other types of lattice structures.