Structural integrity of polypropylene prosthetic sockets manufactured using the polymer deposition technique

Rapid prototyping (RP) technology has been used recently as a means for automated socket fabrication. Although the technology has proven to be promising and has truly automated the socket fabrication process, the structural integrity of RP sockets remains questionable. For the long term, unsupervised use of these 'unconventional' sockets, their material properties and structural integrity must be determined. This study investigated the structural integrity of polypropylene sockets manufactured using a polymer deposition technique, in which a socket is formed by a continuous strand of partially melted polypropylene that is spirally deposited according to the socket's cross-sectional contour. To investigate the problem of delamination of the socket, the tensile properties of the socket material were determined according to ASTM D638-99. The ultimate tensile strength was found to be approximately 13-23 per cent lower than that of polypropylene sheets that are at present normally used for socket fabrication. In order to improve the load-bearing capacity of the socket, it was reinforced using a double-wall arrangement at the distal region, where failure normally occurs. The structural integrity of the complete prosthesis was then investigated according to ISO 10328 (loading condition II). The prosthesis passed the static loading test registering only 12 mm permanent deformation, and it successfully completed a preliminary cyclic test of 250,000 cycles with no observable failure.