Splint for injured finger (research only) by ianmac43

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

Finger Splint:
With the supervision of Dr. R. Siderits, I have designed a prototype "finger splint". This project offers a parametric file describing this object. It is intended to demonstrate the practicality and feasibility of “3-D printed medical devices”, and to facilitate Thingiverse design derivatives of the parametric file.
The appropriately stringent oversight for design, production, manufacture, distribution and use of the medical devices is not addressed in this project. This project is for research use only.
Finger splints can come in many shapes and sizes. A finger splint immobilizes a finger or joint after an injury. Countries with restricted economies and open boarders may use this type of “Field Splint” as a convenient and inexpensive temporary stabilization device. This file describes a “Field Splint” that can be scaled on any axis and printed using ABS Plastic. Depending on the platform up to 30-40 splints can be printed in one “Run”. Each of these can be scaled independently.
This approach may offer an opportunity to provide standardized devices for clinics, remote hospitals as well as field first aid posts. The cost for each splint would be less than 2 cents worth of ABS plastic. A single small 3D printer could conceivably print thousands per year. Once the file is downloaded the splint can be scaled on any axis to fit any finger properly. This research project would be used for emergency field “dressing” and stabilization. Any medical dressing should be used only under the supervision of a qualified medical practitioner.
Here is a link to the Design Processhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJCgFzIUApA
The finger bones used in the bones.jpg have been used from
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:15342
This project is supervised by
Dr. R. Siderits, under the Experimental pathology division - Mentored research program -"Device challenge".
3/19/13
I have recently been in my local Science and Engineering Fair for this project. My title was 3D Printable Medical Devices as Used to Create a Field Splint at an Affordable Price. At the fair I won:
1st place for Science and Engineering Fairs United States Army Award form the United States Army Awards Program
2nd place in the Senior Division in the field of Engineering Materials and Bioengineering.
Certification of Achievement from United States Department of the Army, Army Awards Program.
Certificate of Achievement from United States Department of the Air Force Science Fair Program.