The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

The Customer

The Central Virginia VA Health Care System is dedicated to enhancing the lives of military personnel through innovation. The Assistive Technology team provides evaluation, clinical intervention, and training services to eligible veterans and active duty service members affected by disabilities. Their goal is to minimize the impact of disability and enhance the quality of life.

To achieve their goals, the team uses various assistive technologies, such as electronic cognitive devices, modified car equipment, recreational equipment, electronic aids for daily use, communication devices, and adaptive computer access tools.

The Challenge

Using a pen is something that many people do without thinking about it. However, for some veterans and active-duty service members, their grip strength, motor skills, or hand dexterity may be compromised, making it difficult for them to hold pens.

In clinical settings, time is of the utmost importance. Healthcare staff not only need to see and evaluate each patient, but they must also design custom splints to address each patient’s unique challenges. To meet the demands of a fast-paced hospital environment, the team needed a reliable, quick, and easy way to create flexible splints using additive manufacturing technology. This approach helped to accelerate the production time and allowed for shortened design cycles and iterations.

The Assistive Technology team wanted to help patients by designing and fabricating a wrist strap stylus holder. 3D printing with TPU material was the most economical and fastest way to create the splints, as the flexible qualities of TPU promised the most impactful solution for the patients. However, printing with TPU was more challenging than expected, as it is known to be a tricky material to work with. The team struggled to find a reliable solution that could produce high-quality prints consistently.

“With Smooth TPU 95A, we are able to create parts in a material that is a better fit for our patients and their needs, allowing us to do things we couldn’t do before."

– Brian Burkhardt, Clinical Rehabilitation Engineer, The Assistive Technology Team at the Central Virginia VA Health Care System

The Solution

The Central Virginia VA Healthcare System has used Markforged composite printers to successfully print rigid prosthetics with Onyx material, a Nylon filled with microcarbon fibers.

“Markforged technology has given us the capability to successfully collaborate with medical professionals and veterans to deliver a high-quality solution,” said Brian Burkhardt, Clinical Rehabilitation Engineer. “These printers just work, and enable us to deliver an elegant, high-quality end product for our patients.”

After their positive experience with Markforged technology, Brian and his team decided to incorporate Smooth TPU 95A into their workflow. To accommodate this new material, they purchased an Onyx Pro 3D printer.

The Result

The team was able to make significant progress thanks to the ability to print using Smooth TPU 95A. They designed a stylus holder that doubles as a wrist strap and has a slot to help veterans with limited hand dexterity hold writing implements securely. The unique design of each holder was tailored to each individual, resulting in a highly effective end-use product.

The team works closely with occupational therapists to create customized splints for their patients. These splints enable patients to grip pens, pencils, and styluses. Thanks to The Digital Forge's hardware, software, and materials, the team can create quick iterations and custom prints for individual patients with similar needs. They can also scale up production by making tweaks to the initial design to suit other patients. This process was difficult with traditional manufacturing methods, but with Smooth TPU 95A, they can reliably deliver successful, high-quality TPU prints.

“Whether we are working on a prosthetic or stylus holder, the flexible nature of this new material gives us more capabilities to provide an elegant solution for our patients, making their lives easier."

– Brian Burkhardt, Clinical Rehabilitation Engineer, The Assistive Technology Team at the Central Virginia VA Health Care System

The Future

The Assistive Technology team has decided to use Smooth TPU 95A for other treatments. The VA is currently working on cataloging these designs on the NIH 3D Print Exchange. Once cataloged, anyone can download and print these designs to improve their quality of life.