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Author Beverly A. Beckert
Source Computer-Aided Engineering, Feb 1993 v12 n2 p40(1).
Abstract The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio is researching the automation of artificial limb design to reduce the time and effort required. The University is using scanners to digitize the shape of a patient's residual limb rather than performing the time-consuming task of creating a mold that will later be destroyed. Computer-aided design (CAD) software helps researchers design a prosthetic socket with a perfect fit, then transmits the data to a machine that carves a plaster blank. New automation may allow quick creation of prototype prostheses. The University of Texas at Austin uses DTM Corp's Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) systems to make small-scale prototypes from CAD drawings. The system creates objects layer by layer out of powdered materials, whose temperatures it raises to the point of sintering to form a solid mass. The university hopes to study the possibility of creating actual prostheses with SLS. XX