Rapid manufacturing of medical prostheses

The fabrication of medical prostheses is a topical research area combining knowledge from distinct domains, like engineering, materials and medical fields. Recent computer assisted technologies have proved to play an important role in the medical field. In this research work, the generation of a prosthetic glove to cover a damaged hand of a patient is produced using reverse engineering, rapid prototyping and rapid tooling techniques. The geometric data obtained from reverse engineering through both computer tomography and laser scanning are used and manipulated to create accurate representations of these devices. The reverse engineering data are then used to produce STL models that are physically reproduced through rapid prototyping and tooling processes. An accurate prosthetic glove is obtained using non-toxic materials proving that the exploitation of these technologies can represent key tools to improve the quality of life.