The Silicone-Technology offers many possibilities for use in technical orthopedics due to its excellent mechanical properties and the associated elastic behavior. Unfortunately, this material is still far too rarely used in the everyday life of the orthopedic technician and in his workshop. Since silicones are very sensitive to processing due to their chemical composition and cross-linking characteristics, rules must be observed and special precautions taken in the workshop.
In particular, the combination of different silicones – and also the combination with other materials – will allow special solutions in everyday care and enables an end product with a wide variety of mechanical characteristics.
After an introduction to material science and material selection, the following workshop will shed light on the special do's and don'ts when processing silicones.
Using successful areas of application in prosthetics and orthotics, the potential of this material will be explained with selected care examples.
In addition to the important prosthetic applications in the area of distal extremity care after Finger-, Hand- and Foot amputations, the possibilities of a high-performant socket design in the area of leg prosthetics and orthoprosthetics as well as the successful applications area of orthotics are also presented.
The various possibilities of using the material both in mold making and in free shaping result in highly individual orthopedic technical care solutions and greatly enrich the selection of individual solution approaches for the orthopedic technician providing care.
Statement of the objective / learning objectives
After an introduction to the elastomeric material silicone and its processing specifics, the following course will provide various applications in individual socket construction, prosthetics of the lower and upper extremities as well as orthotics.
