A Paradigm to Produce Customized Ankle Support Using Incremental Sheet Forming

Abstract

This paper presents a paradigm to produce customized ankle support through the use of reverse engineering (RE) process, which uses the patient's scan data to an optimal form using a computer-aided design (CAD) system and then transferring the three-dimensional CAD model to Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) technique for the production of tangible prosthesis product. This work is in the direction of forming of such a customized ankle support that minimizes the gap between the implanting prosthesis and the ankle. Such type of products may be prefabricated or customized. Prefabricated products are manufactured according to the standard sizes of different persons and customized are fitted after observing the patient's computed tomography scan. Prefabricated products do not guaranteed that the product will fit or not to the geometry of patient. On the other side, customized products provide more comfort and satisfaction than prefabricated products. RE design process has been implemented in order to acquire CAD model from the patient's scan data and to use this information for computer controlled layered manufacturing technique like ISF.