New Material for 3D Printing of Orthotics

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Cryos technologies is a well-known Canadian manufacturer of orthotics with remarkable corrective and physical properties. For years, this company has employed a thermoforming process using polyurethane molds to produce the orthotic through polypropylene sheets. However, they cannot respond to the ongoing demands of the market due to a major bottleneck, derived from the laborious process of mold preparation. The application of SLS 3D was considered to considerably accelerate the manufacturing rate. However, they had to replace their inexpensive feed, polypropylene, for a high-priced Nylon 11 to meet the process requirements. The resulting product is not sufficiently cost competitive despite the increase of capacity by 3D printers. Therefore, a modified PP will be produce by modifying the surface by Corona treatment enhancing the binding properties of the interfacial layers during the sintering process. Moreover, the interfacial diffusion will be promoted by a local decrease of the molecular weight, within the interface layer, resulting from the chain sission during the Corona exposure. Therefore, the bulk porosity of the printed orthotics will decrease significantly resulting in the improvement of the fatigue resistance product.