HAND MADE PROSTHETICS
As technology center residents, Braden Leonard and his team are using state of the art equipment to design and build custom prosthetics.
Area of Research:
Manufacturing
Location:
Boston
At the technology center in Boston, the Hand Made Prosthetics team is using state of the art equipment to design and build custom prosthetics.
As an outdoor enthusiast, a veteran fireman, and a dedicated member of his local Rhode Island community, Hand Made Prosthetics founder Braden Leonard needed a prosthetic that would fit his active lifestyle. After trying and breaking a couple of different mechanical prosthetic devices available on the market, Leonard decided to make his own.
The team is focused on improving three key aspects of mechanical wrist and pin-lock design: free rotation under load, strength, and transmission of pronation and supination (twist) from his arm to the prosthetic device.
Hand Made partnered with Outradius to design two parts to their prosthetic device system: the TwistWrist wrist unit and TwistLock distal locking mechanism, which is patent pending. The TwistWrist and TwistLock were designed using finite element analysis to ensure appropriate safe working loads for human tensile and torque loads.
With so many intricate and complex parts to build, access to Autodesk experts on site and the ability to 3D print prototype devices and to CNC individual parts has been critical to the team’s ongoing progress and success.
