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MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | APRIL 2016 | P.64
A SOFTER SOCKET STUDENTS USE A RE-MOLDABLE PLASTIC TO MAKE PROSTHETIC LIMBS EASIER ON AMPUTEES.
Y
Jessica Menold, with a cast for a prosthetic leg. Max Petrosky, Daily Collegian
ou never know where you’ll find inspiration. A team solve. Typically made from a stiff, carbon-fiber material, the of graduate students trying to build a cheaper, more sockets can’t adjust to the size of the limb when it swells and efficient prosthetic socket for amputees in developing contracts, sometimes up to 20 percent, when temperatures countries found it in an ordinary mouth guard. fluctuate. That flaw makes a socket extremely uncomfortable “During one of our brainstorming sessions, someone said or unwearable in tropical regions. they saw an athlete with a mouth guard and thought it would “The traditional socket is not well-suited for this market,” be a great material to use,” said Jessica Menold, a doctoral Menold said. “We wanted to focus on making the process student at Pennsylvania State University in State College and cheaper, faster, and more efficient, while maintaining a high a member of the team. “From there, we came up with the level of quality. We took a typical engineering approach: How idea to use some type of re-moldable thermoplastic.” can you standardize the process?” The five-member team, which included students from Enter the mouth guard. The concept inspired the team to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and Hassouse a similar type of thermoplastic. The material is easy to Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, recently won the melt, mold, cut, and recycle. It's also readily available and EXIST Business Start-Up Grant from the German Federal inexpensive. Menold estimates the use of thermoplastics will Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The team has reduce the entire process–fitting, customizing, and buildreceived €130,000 in EXIST funding to refine the socket and ing to about a day. The students are now experimenting bring it to market. with a combination of materials to create a socket that’s stiff Sockets, Menold explained, are the most expensive and enough to secure a standard base plate and support the pylon carefully crafted part of a prosthesis. To optimize comfort that attaches to it. and function, a prosthetist has to customize each socket to The student team founded a company, Amparo, to develop accommodate differthe technology. The company plans to ent load patterns on launch the first human trial of the socket in the residual limb. The about 18 months. Amparo will probably be process can take up to divided into a for-profit that sells the socka month and requires ets, as well as kits that nurses in villages can several office visits by be trained to use, and a not-for-profit that amputees. That isn’t will focus on training and mobile clinics, always possible in the Menold said. developing world—am“Our goal is to launch a company that putees there often have to cares as much about people as profit,” she travel several hours to reach said. “We start with the user and constantly a prosthetist, so return come back to them. We hope the amputees The Amparo team gathered information visits can be a burden. feel that somebody cares enough to help for its design from amputees in South Today’s sockets also them return to an active life.” ME Africa. create another problem JEFF O’HEIR the team knew it had to
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | APRIL 2016 | P.64
A SOFTER SOCKET STUDENTS USE A RE-MOLDABLE PLASTIC TO MAKE PROSTHETIC LIMBS EASIER ON AMPUTEES.
Y
Jessica Menold, with a cast for a prosthetic leg. Max Petrosky, Daily Collegian
ou never know where you’ll find inspiration. A team solve. Typically made from a stiff, carbon-fiber material, the of graduate students trying to build a cheaper, more sockets can’t adjust to the size of the limb when it swells and efficient prosthetic socket for amputees in developing contracts, sometimes up to 20 percent, when temperatures countries found it in an ordinary mouth guard. fluctuate. That flaw makes a socket extremely uncomfortable “During one of our brainstorming sessions, someone said or unwearable in tropical regions. they saw an athlete with a mouth guard and thought it would “The traditional socket is not well-suited for this market,” be a great material to use,” said Jessica Menold, a doctoral Menold said. “We wanted to focus on making the process student at Pennsylvania State University in State College and cheaper, faster, and more efficient, while maintaining a high a member of the team. “From there, we came up with the level of quality. We took a typical engineering approach: How idea to use some type of re-moldable thermoplastic.” can you standardize the process?” The five-member team, which included students from Enter the mouth guard. The concept inspired the team to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and Hassouse a similar type of thermoplastic. The material is easy to Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, recently won the melt, mold, cut, and recycle. It's also readily available and EXIST Business Start-Up Grant from the German Federal inexpensive. Menold estimates the use of thermoplastics will Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The team has reduce the entire process–fitting, customizing, and buildreceived €130,000 in EXIST funding to refine the socket and ing to about a day. The students are now experimenting bring it to market. with a combination of materials to create a socket that’s stiff Sockets, Menold explained, are the most expensive and enough to secure a standard base plate and support the pylon carefully crafted part of a prosthesis. To optimize comfort that attaches to it. and function, a prosthetist has to customize each socket to The student team founded a company, Amparo, to develop accommodate differthe technology. The company plans to ent load patterns on launch the first human trial of the socket in the residual limb. The about 18 months. Amparo will probably be process can take up to divided into a for-profit that sells the socka month and requires ets, as well as kits that nurses in villages can several office visits by be trained to use, and a not-for-profit that amputees. That isn’t will focus on training and mobile clinics, always possible in the Menold said. developing world—am“Our goal is to launch a company that putees there often have to cares as much about people as profit,” she travel several hours to reach said. “We start with the user and constantly a prosthetist, so return come back to them. We hope the amputees The Amparo team gathered information visits can be a burden. feel that somebody cares enough to help for its design from amputees in South Today’s sockets also them return to an active life.” ME Africa. create another problem JEFF O’HEIR the team knew it had to
