Design and Manufacturing of Flexible Finger Prosthesis Using 3D Printing

Abstract

3D printing is an emerging technology for the manufacturing of prostheses with the potential for low resource configurations. However, studies using flexible materials to improve prosthesis properties are still scarce, such as adaptability, flexibility, fewer joints, among others. Thus, this paper is aimed to manufacture and evaluate the applicability of a flexible finger prosthesis using 3D printing. For this purpose, analyzes of finger positioning, scanning, and modeling were performed. The prosthesis was manufactured using TPU and fabricated on a 3D printing machine. Finite element analysis was also applied in order to assess the functional aspects of the prosthesis produced. After that, it was possible to manufacture the prosthesis in one piece, reducing manufacturing time and problems associated with subsequent assembly.