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Concept Cast: A 3D-Printed Exoskeletal Cast from Jake Evill
Just about everyone has that really gruesome childhood story of the first time you broke a bone and went through the lengthy process of getting a cast. If you happen to grow up to be in the best professional field ever (i.e. design), you likely also have stories of fantastical apparatuses with which to get at that itch underneath the layers of plaster or ingenious ways to keep the cast dry at a pool party.
It's really no secret that designing for medical products is one of the fastest moving and innovative subsets of the product design game. Designing objects for better administering or healthcare, implementing new technology and identifying opportunities for innovation is serious business. So how did it take this long to merge with out favorite manufacturing technique of the latter, 3D printing? Whatever the reason, the recent work of Victoria University of Wellington graduate Jake Evill is certainly notable for merging digital fabrication and one of the most uncomfortable medical devices.
Achieving what will be the epitome of a Nervous System-meets-Spiderman aesthetic, the Cortex 3D-printed concept cast boasts some really nice features that put its traditional (and itchy) plaster counterpart to shame. The lightweight polyamide cast both allowing you to shower and recycle the parts when healing is complete. Paired with 3D scanning technology, the design and support structure could easily be tweaked to provide extra support to fractured areas of the arm.
Evill reportedly hopes to develop this concept design further working with orthopedic physicians. We can certainly envision serious interest in the healthcare field for personalized cast construction. It appears the biggest hurdle will be in the turnaround for 3D printing the actual casts - with current production time clocking in at 24-72 hours, an awfully long time to be waiting in the emergency room. Luckily for Evill, we can't imagine that will be a problem for much longer with the 3D printing boom. What will be especially interesting will be the potential to outfit healthcare facilities with 3D printers directly so as to actually manufacture casts on site (should the speed of printing make products feasible for production).
For more info on the Cortex cast concept or other work by Jack Evill you can check out his website.
See also: Bespoke Innovations Uses RP to Make Prosthetics with Style
Editor's update: Jake Evill recently reached out to us to let us know that his brother, Oliver Evill also helped with this project.
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print of this will probably be knocked down to about 30minutes time. The technology is only getting faster. Plus you don't need a doctor's time for this. A tech can do it.. and in larger hospitals provide a faster cast applying rate at a cheaper cost.
Plus it's much more enjoyable product to wear as the typical casts are wasteful and gross.
There is nothing that says you can't still have a temp cast for the first day or two while you wait for your part to be produced.
Some of these more organic uses don't necessarily need .005" accuracy. Rapid prototyping could compromise accuracy for speed for some specialized applications like this. In any case, it could even be applied as a more comfortable second cast. I.e. after a couple weeks after the bone has set, a plaster cast is replaced by a more comfortable device.
Besides that, there could be other benefits as well such as regional stiffness and gradual transition away from the damaged area with increasing flexibility - which certainly would make it more comfortable. This could be a distant relative of bespokeinnovations - and between temporary casts and replacement limbs, it's not difficult to see where this can go with static limb/joint assists for protection (shin, wrist guards), damaged limbs (arthritis), and/or eventual integration with bionic limbs.
"one side is open to enable access and once fitted, it snaps closed with built-in, durable fasteners..."
It would be good to see how this works though..
Funny foam that cast on.How about putting some terrazo in the plaster mix instead lol.
No way to graffiti it either.
Just imagine you have a broken arm or hand, but instead of wrapping it with plaster, which is already painful enough, you would have to stick your whole arm into this thing...Besides, plaster is a much cheaper and faster solution.
So, I think this idea would work well as a piece of jewelry, not as a medical solution. It is just not practical, it is expensive, it requires technologies that are not available in hospitals and it is only significantly better than its conventional counterpart is terms of aesthetic.