Investigation of woven commingled thermoplastic composite for the prosthetic application

Prosthetic Sockets serve as an integral link between the amputee’s residual limb and the rest of the prosthesis. Focusing on sustainability (recycling and bio-degradable), we explore the suitability of self-reinforced(sr) PLA and PET composite as alternative materials for manufacturing prosthetic sockets. For this purpose, we performed tensile and flexural testing on commingled woven srPLA and srPET composite. The srPLA exhibits elastic-brittle response having an average failure strain of 2%. In contrast, srPET displays elastic-plastic response with average failure strain reaching up to 20%. The tensile and flexural strength of srPET is 132MPa and 72MPa, respectively. This is on par with the standard prosthetic socket materials including Glass and Carbon fibre reinforced composite with thermoset matrix. Therefore, srPET could be the realistic alternative for manufacturing sustainable prosthetic sockets. In contrast, the srPLA has inferior mechanical properties to that of standard prosthetic socket materials. Since the srPLA composite has recyclability and bio-degradability, it can be used to manufacture the test or check sockets; thus reducing the plastic pollution due to discarded check sockets.