Bioinspired Design of 3D-Printed Cellular Metamaterial Prosthetic Liners for Enhanced Comfort and Stability.

Traditional prosthetic liners are often limited in customization due to constraints in manufacturing processes and materials. Typically made from non-compressible elastomers, these liners can cause discomfort through uneven contact pressures and inadequate adaptation to the complex shape of the residual limb. This study explores the development of bioinspired cellular metamaterial prosthetic liners, designed using additive manufacturing techniques to improve comfort by reducing contact pressure and redistributing deformation at the limb-prosthesis interface.

Thermo-Mechanical Behavior and Strain Rate Sensitivity of 3D-Printed Polylactic Acid (PLA) below Glass Transition Temperature (T).

This study investigated the thermomechanical behavior of 4D-printed polylactic acid (PLA), focusing on its response to varying temperatures and strain rates in a wide range below the glass transition temperature (T). The material was characterized using tension, compression, and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), confirming PLA's strong dependency on strain rate and temperature. The glass transition temperature of 4D-printed PLA was determined to be 65 °C using a thermal analysis (DMTA).

Development, fabrication and mechanical characterisation of auxetic bicycle handlebar grip.

The auxetic cellular structures are one of the most promising metamaterials for vibration damping and crash absorption applications. Therefore, their use in the bicycle handlebar grip was studied in this work. A preliminary computational design study was performed using various auxetic and non-auxetic geometries under four load cases, which can typically appear.

Numerical Analysis of a Transtibial Prosthesis Socket Using 3D-Printed Bio-Based PLA.

Lower-limb prosthesis design and manufacturing still rely mostly on the workshop process of trial-and-error using expensive unrecyclable composite materials, resulting in time-consuming, material-wasting, and, ultimately, expensive prostheses. Therefore, we investigated the possibility of utilizing Fused Deposition Modeling 3D-printing technology with inexpensive bio-based and bio-degradable Polylactic Acid (PLA) material for prosthesis socket development and manufacturing. The safety and stability of the proposed 3D-printed PLA socket were analyzed using a recently developed generic transtibial numeric model, with boundary conditions of donning and newly developed realistic gait cycle phases of a heel strike and forefoot loading according to ISO 10328.