Numerical and experimental analysis of the 3D printed multi-material ankle foot orthosis

Abstract

The objective of the current research is to print the most fracture resistant and economic prototype of the AFO device using Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) 3D printing. As it was mentioned in above, PLA is one of the most suitable, most common and cheapest material for FDM printing, at the same time it is not as mechanically resistant as Nylon. Thus, in this paper, it was suggested to observe the model of AFO created from PLA for the locations with the highest stress values using the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) method. Afterwards, these locations were substituted with Nylon, which is much harder than PLA. Such modification may improve the total stress resistance of the model and minimize the cost for the used material. In order to confirm the results, the developed AFO was printed by the five extrusion multi-material FDM 3D printer and finally, tested using the compressor testing machine.