DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF THERMOPLASTIC POLYPROPYLENE ANKLE FOOT ORTHOSIS

Ankle-Foot-Orthoses (AFOs) are assistive devices used for neurological and physical disorders affecting the movement of the lower limbs. The needs of an increasingly young and active orthotic patient population have led to advancements in ankle foot orthosis (AFO) design and materials to enable higher function.  Proper selection of material for manufacturing of AFO leads to greater increase in popularity to patients during walking providing better and compatible ankle foot orthotic device for patient specific. The purpose of this study is to develop design guide to find out the structural characteristics of polypropylene of AFO. In this research work, design and static analysis of a passive AFO to fit a human foot is presented. The static analysis was carried out for AFO made up of Polypropylene material with thicknesses 4 mm. Based on the results obtained from the static analysis. The results obtained from the static analysis showed that the polypropylene AFO was performing better results, generating less stress, deformation, and good factor of safety.