Opti-Flex: The Compliant Mechanism Knee Brace
In freshman year, when a fellow MechE friend tore his ACL for the second time playing Rugby, we knew something had to be done about re-injury prevention in contact sports. With traditional hinged braces banned in competition, we took a hard look at the rulebook. The goal was simple for this CAD-only challenge: maximum protection; within the rules.
TLDR; I got my first taste of designing a product from scratch, managing timelines, and building some simple FEA sims.
The Hinge
The goal of this leaf spring-inspired compliant hinge was to minimize valgus movement while maintaining the explosive feeling high-performance athletes require.
An internal groove mechanism allows the Polyetherimide leaves to slide and minimize resistance.
The slotted mechanism acts as a stopper; maintaining an 8 to 135 degree range of motion
Validation
Especially when designing for injury prevention validation is critical.
Solidworks and ANSYS static simulations to validate valgus resistance and frame stiffness to comply with USA Rugby guidelines.
