DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A ULTRA LIGHT WEIGHT PROSTHETIC LEG

Abstract

Prosthesis, prosthetic or prosthetic limb is an artificial device extension that replaces a missing body part. Prosthetic leg is an artificial device that is used as a replacement of the natural leg. Legs available in the market can be divided into two categories. The first are the imported legs, the cost of which is very high and out of reach of common amputee of India on the other hand there are conventional legs. Though conventional legs are cheap but they act as support only and these are very heavy due to which the efficiency of the amputee is very less. The principle aim of this work is to design a prosthetic leg which can fill the gap between the imported and conventional leg. The leg should be such that it will be lighter in weight as compared to the conventional leg and should be much cheaper than imported leg. This is achieved by analyzing the drawbacks in the conventional leg and proposes modifications which result in less weight. Thereafter, applying the properties of different polymer matrix composites materials, the best materials which helps in reducing the weight is found to be E-Glass Epoxy. With help of the material properties of this composite, the shin and socket for the prosthetic leg have been designed in SOLIDWORKS, tested for stress analysis using simulation studies and have been thereafter manufactured