Development of 3D printed cellular architectures for customized shoe insole

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Additive manufacturing is well-suited to create complex, 3D structures with engineered properties without the need for expensive tooling, dies, or fixtures and with minimal post-processing. 3D printing processes has garnered significant attention recently for their ability to enable and improve many emerging technologies. The proposed Engage project here is a new collaborative venture between Kim's research team at the Simon Fraser University (SFU) and Kintec, Surrey, BC. Kintec is a Canadian Board-Accredited Prescription Foot Orthotic Lab (BAPFOL) facility that has become the industry leader in the region. 3D printed cellular micro-structures offer an attractive design strength to customized shoe insole technologies by enabling the creation of tailored mechanical properties at low cost. The ability to print three dimensionally networked cellular solids with fine resolution in mechanically designed condition is a technologically very important feature of potential customized insole, which can be an immediate solution of current challenge for the launch of premium products by combining with existing products developed in Kintec. The proposed collaborative project of research will investigate 3D printing of flexible rubber filament with designed cellular structures for customized shoe insole applications and performance evaluation for mechanical reliability and robustness confirmation. In this method, the 3D printed cellular insole can be fabricated directly via a single step of filament-based 3D printing technique.