CORSET PRESSURE PADS EVALUATION USING A CAD/CAM METHOD

Abstract

Pressure pads are small hand-made corset components used for scoliotic curve correction by applying pressure to the body segment. The design and accuracy of these pads can be increased by using modern approaches like CAD modeling and additive manufacturing. The aim of this research was to apply these methods in the pressure pad development process and evaluate the suitability of the designed prototypes. A CAD software SOLIDWORKS was used for the pad design and 2 manufacturing technologies have been selected, specifically FDM and MJF, for the pad production. As for the material of which the pads could be manufactured, PLA, PETG and PA12 have been selected. Abaqus software, using the finite element method, has been chose for the 9 pad prototypes strength calculation, from which 6 have passed the test. It would be appropriate to expand the given research with CAD pressure pads of various optimized designs with different types and densities of infills.