A New Look For a New Breed
by Damon Lambert

Not long ago, I came to Francis Tuttle Technology Center in Oklahoma City, Okla. to start my training as an O&P technician. 

Like many, I have a personal reason for entering into O&P. Mine is Steve—a good friend who lost his arm to an IED (improvised explosive device) while we were in combat together in Iraq. When I left the Army, I promised myself I would do everything to help amputees like Steve.

One thing I saw immediately was that the newer veterans I met all wore their prosthetic devices with pride. They decorated their prostheses with pictures, unit patches, medals or dedications to fallen comrades. 

I wanted to encourage them by designing a prosthesis that was really eye-catching. I even stayed awake at night trying to think of an idea. Then it came to me: Let’s go 3-D! 

Choosing the materials
Once I had pitched the idea to my instructors, Joe Young, CPO and Dee McKasson, CO, I knew I had a challenge on my hands. Without their guidance, patience and expertise, I would have never been able to finish this project. 

But my first assigned project, a trans-tibial exoskeletal prosthesis, proved to be the perfect canvas to experiment on. (This process has also proven to be easily adaptable to an endoskeleton prosthesis.) 

The medium I decided to try first, Kydex, was also definitely the right one. Predominantly used in orthortics, its properties were exactly what I needed. Kydex is very formable, so I knew I could make it contour around the hard foam lamination with relative ease. With the help of both of my instructors, I began.

Preparing the Kydex
I selected an intricate pattern—a three-headed dragon—just to see how much detail I would be able to achieve during lamination. Once I enlarged the photo of the dragon, I printed it and glued it to a sheet of Kydex using rubber cement. I then used a scroll saw to cut the pattern out of the Kydex. This was an arduous process, so it took some time. A classmate, however, decided to cut out a bio-hazard symbol to laminate into his project. He was ready the next day. 

The Kydex performed as expected, leaving a little clean-up work to do with the Trautman carver. In the future, I plan on trying a water jet cutter to avoid this. 

Applying Kydex
My classmate, since he was ready first, applied his bio-hazard design to his socket by heating the Kydex in the oven. Unfortunately, this disfigured the design too much. His working time was less than he had expected and the Kydex just became too malleable. 

With that in mind, I opted for the heat gun. I chose the area where I wanted to put the design and traced it in. Slowly heating the Kydex dragon seemed to be the best way to keep it from being disfigured. With my classmate’s help, I used this method and some Ace bandage wraps until I was able to fit the Kydex snugly around the socket. A heat gun proved to be a more controlled and precise way after all. 

Lamination
The lamination process took a little extra time and effort during set off times and the vacuum phase. During the lay-up, I had to take extra precautions in order not to snag the PVA bag on the Kydex. For the final lamination, I used clear acrylic resin. It was mixed so that we would have ample time for working out any kinks in the process. 

During the vacuum stage, we noticed pooling around the edges of the Kydex even with the vacuum turned on high. We have discussed using a double vacuum method in the future to alleviate this problem. 

But by the time the resin set, the definition in the leg was outstanding. Success! 

Making the Dragon Glow

My other mission in life is to make children smile. During the process of designing the Kydex dragon, my daughter kept running in and out of my home office showing me her new shoes, which lit up when she ran. If the people who manufacture the shoe could put lights in them, then why couldn’t I put them into a prosthesis? I could just see them brightening the face of some six-year-old who had just lost her leg to cancer. So I began to search for the technology. However, searching the Internet and calling many different companies that made LEDs could not supply me with what I needed. I had to make do by experimenting with the lights from my daughter’s shoes. I decided to put the lights into the eyes and heart of the dragon. Actually putting lights in was simply trial and error. Since this was a hard foam leg, I was able to use a Dremel tool and sculpt out an area to hold the lights and their accompanying processor board. I cut holes into each eye and a hole about where the heart should be. Since the lights are triggered by a motion switch, with every step, the lights behind the heart and eyes will flash in a random pattern. Currently I am working with an electrical engineer to make a rechargeable lighting system that would be removable from the distal end of an AK or BK prosthesis. As it is now, this is only good for “ooh’s and ah’s.”

Replicating the project
Whether O&P facilities start using three-dimensional lamination would be up to practitioners. It definitely adds a lot of “cool factor,” but I know that this will never be something that a practitioner could charge for, since it is purely cosmetic. 

However, after showing the Kydex dragon around to a few of the local practices, one practitioner told me that if I showed this to any of his patients, he would be working through the nights trying to keep up. Even though this was merely a test, there have already been a couple of people asking to have the first 3D Kydex lamination. 

Due to the war in Iraq, amputees are younger, and I bet they’d like showing off a “cool” prosthesis. So will there ever be widespread 3D lamination? That’s up to practitioners who are willing to go the extra mile.

A complete PowerPoint presentation of this project is on the Francis Tuttle Web site, www.francistuttle.com. Navigate to the O&P department or go directly to www.francistuttle.com/classes/ctp/op/presentations

Damon Lambert is a student at Francis Tuttle Technology Center.