Author : Simin Nasseri, Vitale Kyle Castellano, Tammy Ong, Anthony DeDiego and Nasrin Naseri

This paper reports on the results of design and fabrication of a new finger support. Finger deformation is very common and has many causes and severity. Most of the available finger supports are not resizable and comfortable. They are mainly designed to fully restrict the finger’s motion when there has been any type of injury. However, for example in the case of early stages of arthritis, the patient should be able to use them whenever they want. Furthermore, the available finger supports cannot be adjusted considering various fingers’ sizes and positions. In this research, seven models of a polymer-metal composite finger support are designed. They are made of a soft polymer with inserted sheets of aluminum, steel or carbon-fiber. The optimal models are strong, and allow for size and finger position adjustments, and can be used for patients who already have distorted fingers and are working on them to regain some functions. Extensive finite element analysis of the support under the distributed loads of the finger, confirmed by the results obtained by a MATLAB program, shows that the new support tolerates the applied forces without any permanent deformation. Finally, the fabricated part using 3D printing validates the results.

Keywords: Arthritis; Polymers; Composite; 3D printing; Finite Element Analysis; Modeling

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.8, No.4 (July/Aug 2018)