Manufatura aditiva de uma órtese suro podálica após o processo de otimização topológica

Abstract

With the advancement of technology, the need for evolutions and adaptations in processes in general has required the manufacture of increasingly complex structures in an efficient way with reduced consumption and time. In this context, additive manufacturing has gained a lot of space in the market, as it meets the need for manufacturing complex geometries that would previously require a lot of effort or even be unfeasible for conventional manufacturing processes. That said, studies have been developed in the field of assistive medicine with the aim of improving and enabling the manufacture of orthoses through additive manufacturing. The AFO orthosis (Ankle-Foot Orthosis), our suropodal orthosis, is a medical device responsible for ensuring the stability of patients who suffer some type of injury or who have difficulty moving their ankle. As it is an external device, comfort becomes a fundamental factor for the patient who uses it. Therefore, topological optimization concepts have been applied to AFO orthoses aiming to reduce the mass of the device without losing its mechanical properties. With the application of topology optimization, AFO assumes increasingly complex geometries and, even for additive manufacturing processes, the time to manufacture this device can increase significantly. Therefore, the present work seeks to study the concepts and manufacturing parameters of additive manufacturing aiming to manufacture an AFO after going through the topological optimization process, with lower amounts of raw material used, in addition to reduced manufacturing time. For this, 5 3D printing parameters were selected, namely: layer height, extrusion width, printing speed, manufacturing orientation and filling density. With an AFO model defined from previous studies, these parameters were entered into the Ultimaker Cura slicing software, together with the properties of the defined 3D printer and the manufacturing raw material, in this case PLA. In total, 18 simulations were carried out, half for a first orientation and the other half for the second chosen printing orientation. The results were effective when related to the reduction of AFO mass and manufacturing time.