Design And Research Of Rapid Fabrication System Of Prosthetic Socket

Prosthetic socket, as the joint of the limb stump and the residual limb of amputee, can support and embrace the joint to move smoothly. Traditional way to fabricate the socket is very complex and trivial, which includes the plaster-bandage shaping, the free hand modification, and so on. In order to overcome these disadvantages, Engineering technologies such as CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) are introduced into the prosthetics industry. With these advanced techniques, people can design better personal socket model for different lower limb's amputees and can fabricate the socket which can be used many times in less time and can archive the model into the computer memory device for further usage.To solve the bottle-neck problems existing during the socket fabricating procedure in the domestic prosthetics industry, this paper investigate and study the socket digitalization technology under the assistance of the National High Technology program (863) – "Research and Development of Individual socket digitalization and rapid shaping technology". A socket rapid fabricating system prototype is constructed after the socket modeling algorithm research and socket CAD/CAM analysis. Several clinical experiments has been conducted and the results show that the system performance has attained the desired requirements, This system prototype can increase the intelligence level of socket automation and the ratio of the successful fabrication, reduce the cost and improve the clinical application.