Adjustable Back Brace Sleeve with Elastic Padding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional back braces are often improperly sized for patients with unique physical characteristics, such as petite or tall individuals, due to their design focusing on an average male size, and existing adjustable padding techniques are labor-intensive and inefficient for accommodating individual anatomical variations.
Innovation Solution
A multi-panel adjustable posterior frame with a belt attached, featuring a slot system and fastener adjustment guide wire that allows for height adjustments, combined with a padded sleeve that maintains padding positioning and accommodates variances through elastic material, ensuring proper fit and comfort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If back braces are sized to accommodate an average-sized male, then governmental coding and reimbursement procedures are satisfied, but patients with unique physical characteristics (petite or tall individuals) experience improper fit
Solution Approach 1:
The back brace incorporates adjustable panels that can be dynamically repositioned vertically along the posterior frame. The first panel can be adjusted relative to the second panel to accommodate different torso lengths, allowing the brace to adapt to various patient sizes while maintaining proper fit and support.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional padding techniques are used in adjustable back braces, then manufacturing is simplified, but clinicians must manually alter installed padding to accommodate adjustments, which is labor intensive and difficult to scale
Solution Approach 1:
The padding is pre-positioned on the adjustable panels before the panels are attached to the posterior frame. This preliminary placement of padding ensures that when the panels are adjusted to different positions, the padding automatically moves with them, eliminating the need for clinicians to manually reposition padding after adjustments are made.
Solution Approach 2:
The padding is integrated with the adjustable panels as a single unit. The padding is attached to the panels in a way that combines the padding function with the adjustment mechanism, so that panel adjustments automatically result in corresponding padding repositioning without requiring separate manual intervention.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables precise sizing adjustments to accommodate diverse patient anatomies, improving comfort and reducing labor for clinicians by allowing the back brace to be tailored to individual needs, enhancing fit and usability.
Implementation Method 1
accommodates variances through elastic material
Data Source
AI summary
A sleeve for covering an external surface of an orthosis is described, where the orthosis includes an adjustable posterior frame featuring a first panel slidably coupled to a second panel. The sleeve includes (i) a first material forming an anterior side of the sleeve; (ii) a second material forming a posterior side of the sleeve; (iii) a first padded area attached to a first region of an inner surface of the first material partially forming the anterior side of the sleeve, (iv) a second padded area attached to a second region of an inner surface of first material partially forming the anterior side of the sleeve, and (v) an elastic middle area of the second material interposed between an upper area of the second material proximate to the first padded area and a lower area of the second material proximate to the second padded area.