December 15, 2015

Today on MeshMixer, we designed the foot sole to be printed. We will now try to hollow it out so that it is more of a sole instead of a solid object, and we will add material to the ankles so that there is room for an attachment.

The pictures above show our designs for the custom foot sole, however, they will need to be made thicker in order to be printed. 

The final image was made by converting the object into a solid and then hollowing it out.

December 11, 2015

This is our second iteration of the back of our AFO. It fits the shape of the calf very well, but it might need to be taller. We will also print the sole of our AFO using MeshMixer.

December 9, 2015

Today we edited our CAD model for the back of our AFO brace. We needed to scale it down so that the width was about 1.5 inches shorter. It will be printed.

December 9, 2015

After my visit to the Tech Shop on Thursday, I obtained a vacuum-formed mold of my foot, which we had printed a few days beforehand. The vacuum former could be useful in creating a mold of the foot, but we would need stronger plastic. It could also be used to create an imprint of the sole of the foot for a custom insole.

December 8, 2015

The back of the AFO has been printed. A few adjustments will need to be made to the width and shape. 

December 3, 2015

Today Naomi designed the CAD model for the back part of our AFO (It also can be seen in the Visual Log). It will be printed. Also, Jackson visited the Tech Shop and is using our model of the foot with the vacuum former to create a sole. We are now deciding whether we should use the vacuum former or the 3D printer to produce the custom sole.

December 2, 2015

We continued research on the use of an AFO with different patients, looking at before and after videos of patients using an AFO contrasted with not using an AFO.  We began to continue work on our rough parts (CAD Model) to print out, so we can have a physical piece to use for further research. We also printed out a copy of Jackson's foot to have a physical reference to model our AFO from. We are planning to make use of the printed foot with the vacuum former at TechShop this upcoming Thursday to progress our next prototype.

November 23, 2015

Below is a rough sketch of our new design idea. 

November 19, 2015

Today I visited Tech Shop and completed the Vacuum Former SBU (received a safety and usage packet, but some notes can be found below).  I molded my shoe to closely resemble the type of work we will be doing for our project. The first time, I placed my shoe in sideways and there was no support,  so it folded over on itself. However, the mold of the bottom worked well. The second time, I decided to place the shoe so that the bottom was facing up. We used "hockey pucks" to stabilize the show so that it would not roll over. Because of the flexibility of my shoe, it again deformed after the use of the vacuum, but the hockey pucks cause the toe area of the shoe to be sticking up which is what actually needs to occur for the patients who have drop foot (their toes need to be up). When we actually are designing our brace, we will be using a solid mold, the 3D printed scanned model, so this machine will actually work very well for our design.

Thermo plastic

Scan or mold --> 3D print 

Have the back of leg part come in particular sizes 

Bottom of foot will be more custom 

Different slices of the mold of their foot on one sheet 

- Naomi

November 17, 2015

Today we scheduled our trip to Tech Shop to take a class on vacuum forming this upcoming Thursday.

November 13, 2015

http://www.scheckandsiress.com/documents/afo-plastic-jm.pdf
This site gives a good general description of the basic types of AFO's (Ankle Foot Orthosis) and how they are used.

November 11, 2015

Today we met with our City As Our Campus mentor/expert, Dr. Matt Caster. After this meeting, our design shifted some as we were told what is both feasible and useful. More information on the "City As Our Campus Mentor info" page.

November 10, 2015

Today we designed our CAD model (there are still some issues with it that we were not able to fix) and build our first resolution prototype.

November 3, 2015

Today we visited Union Orthotics and Prosthetics where we took a tour of their facility. Toward the end of the tour, we were able to ask Donny some one-on-one questions about our project and new ideas. This is where we were inspired to create an AFO (Ankle Foot Orthosis) for patients suffering from mobility issues.