+/- Brace

What it does

+/- Brace is a user-centered, fully customisable elbow brace, promoting comfort and reducing the risk of injury and is produced by combining 3D Printing and Laser Cutting technology. In Cooperation with WertelOberfell.

Your inspiration

Conventional medical products are either expensive or non-individualized. Recognizing the limitations and high cost of existing braces, coupled with their poor fit and aesthetics, sparked the idea for a user-centered, customizable solution. Using additive 3D printing and subtractive laser cutting, the +/- brace aims to provide comfort, functionality, and affordability. The iterative process, including extensive material testing and algorithmic adjustments, has refined the design. Embracing an open-source ethos, the project enables individuals to fabricate their own elbow braces, ensuring accessibility in injury rehabilitation.

How it works

With the +/- Brace app the user can easily customise size, form, structure and padding. Taking the users data and existing users measurements into account, the scripted algorithm calculates the optimal design for your personalised +/- brace. The user could then either fabricate the brace on their own, order it within the maker community, or proceed with buying the brace on the platform. Being able to offer customized products, 3D printing and laser cutting provides flexibility in design and allows on-demand manufacturing and production.

Design process

Utilizing Grasshopper with a custom built script, we inputted body measurements as parameters to generate data output for our FDM printer and the laser cutter. Combining 3d printing and laser cutting in one device, complex shapes and structures can be produced that would be difficult to realize with conventional manufacturing methods. To find the optimal pattern that is breathable and flexible, many different iterations that were generated using our grasshopper scripts were laser-cut, tested and evaluated. In the search of the best suited material, over 70 different fabric types were tested. The chosen 4-way stretch softshell fabric, composed of 49% Polyester, 30% Polyamide, 12% Polyurethane, and 9% Elasthan, weighing 380 g/m2, offers multiple benefits for an elbow brace. It provides a comfortable and flexible fit and ensures unrestricted movement while offering excellent support and stability to the elbow joint. Its fibre composition makes it durable, breathable and therefore an ideal choice for everyday sports and injury rehabilitation. A range of FDM-printed pads were developed and iterated, utilizing TPU filament with a shore hardness of 98A. Using a TPMS Gyroid gradient structure as an infill, the final product has characteristics of materials like foam or gel.

How it is different

The Concept of +/- Brace is unique in that it combines 3D printing and laser cutting technologies to create an affordable, fully customisable and user-centred medical device, unlike traditional, non-individualised and often expensive medical products. This process and performance driven project led to the development of a new production process and resulted in a unique product aesthetic, paving the way for a range of new products.

Future plans

The +/- Brace, as a personalized medical device, exemplifies how individually designed healthcare products can be made accessible through an open-source approach. Improving and enhancing efficiency in 3D printed fabric-based manufacturing and embracing an open source process ultimately resulted in the creation of affordable individualized braces for people in need of them.

Awards

German Medical Award, Nominee, 2023 // Green Concept Award, Nominee, 2023 // Greener Manufacturing Fair, Cologne, 2023 // Isola Design Award, Category Textile, Winner, 2023 // Isola Design Award, Category Most Voted Jury, Winner, 2023 // Isola Design Salone del Mobile, Milan, 2024