Design rules for additively manufactured wrist splints created using design of experiment methods

Research has shown that wrist splints can be made using Additive Manufacturing (AM) with a similar or greater performance than splints created using traditional manufacturing methods. By using AM, many of the problems associated with traditional splinting such as poor aesthetics and poor ventilation could be mitigated. However, work to date typically reviews splints with singular pattern designs (e.g. Voronoi patterns), which have structural and safety implications if similar but untested patterns are created. Using Design of Experiments (DOE) design rules were to enable clinicians to confidently design splints alongside their patients. Design rules were created by investigating variables of cut out patterns using DOE methods. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of various combinations of cut out variables was conducted.