3D Printing with FEA for the Design and the Analysis of a Prototype of Prosthetic Hand (Case Study)

Recent years have witnessed a widespread demand for the manufacture of hand prosthetics using the 3D printing method, or what is known as additive manufacturing. This study aims to design and analyze a prototype of a prosthetic hand designed by using the SolidWork program and manufactured by 3D printing techniques, with an Ansys using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) in order to determine the maximum amount of stress that the prototype can withstand at different loading conditions and the amount of total deformation. The printing has been performed in a Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) with Polylactic Acid (PLA) material. The results have showed that the proposed model has given acceptable values concerning von Mises stress and deformation for different loading conditions.