Design and Manufacture of Customizable Finger Immobilizer and Mallet Finger Splints

Abstract

Orthoses are used extensively in medicine. Most contemporary orthosis follow traditional methods of manufacture and have a lot of drawbacks. This paper presents a novel orthotic solution of customizable finger splints with a standardized design. The finger immobilizer and the mallet splints are the orthoses being developed in this study. These splints will be customizable via the thermoformable property of the splint material, polylactic acid (PLA). The designs seek to overcome the drawbacks of contemporary splints. The 3D printing was done using Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) method on the Prusa i3 MK3s printer. The finger splints developed were light weight, breathable and comfortable according to the volunteers who tested them. Future research will focus on the validation of these splints via a clinical study on patients.