Hello Everyone,
My son uses Ankle Foot Orthopedics (AFO’s) but the ones he currently has are solid and over constrain his Range of Motion (ROM). At the office with his Specialist we looked at some options but nothing I could see him wearing daily to further improve his ankles ROM. My son can walk without AFO’s but he does need a bit of extra support at his ankles or tension after not finding the right AFO’s I bought a structure 3D scanner and scanned his feet came up with a simple prototype using Fusion 360, then 3D printed the spring loaded AFO that gives him the natural ROM along with nominal degree stoppers so he won’t over flex his motion and they work Great! spring tension was a bit weak but other than that AFO did exactly what I was looking for. While going through some patents I found the exact mechanism I had been looking for it’s a much better design and it does exactly what I was looking for which is great but I figured I would just share my experience and prototype. I have attached a small clip of my prototype AFO mechanism
The AFO joint is called Ultraflex Adjustable Dynamic Response
https://youtu.be/ymZ6qqjwHFA