Customized Clavicle Protection Through 3D Scanning and Printing

The patent replaces the manual mechanical hand-molding process with a digital 3D printing system. A 3D scanner captures the subject's body geometry, and a computer generates a digital model that is directly manufactured using additive manufacturing. This substitution of mechanical manual operations with digital automation eliminates the need for skilled molders and significantly reduces manufacturing time while maintaining high customization precision.

The patent creates a digital copy of the subject's body geometry through 3D scanning, storing the anatomical data as digital information. This digital copy is then used to generate the protective device without requiring physical hand-molding. The digital model serves as a precise replica that can be manipulated and manufactured efficiently, eliminating time-consuming physical molding processes.

The patent performs preliminary 3D scanning of the subject's body to capture precise anatomical data before manufacturing the protective device. This advance measurement and digital modeling ensures that the device will be perfectly fitted to the individual's body geometry. The preliminary digital creation allows for optimization of coverage and range of motion before the actual manufacturing occurs, eliminating the fit problems of standard devices.

The patent changes the manufacturing parameters from standard mass-production methods to customized additive manufacturing parameters. By controlling the layer thickness, material deposition, and geometric parameters during 3D printing, the device can be precisely tailored to match the subject's unique body shape, providing optimal fit and coverage that standard off-the-shelf devices cannot achieve.

The patent replaces the traditional mechanical plaster molding process with digital 3D scanning and additive manufacturing. Instead of physically creating plaster casts and then manufacturing molds, the system directly digitizes the subject's anatomy and manufactures the protective device through computer-controlled material deposition. This substitution maintains the design versatility achieved through plaster molding while eliminating the time-consuming manual steps involved in cast creation and mold fabrication.

The patent creates a digital copy of the subject's anatomy through 3D scanning, capturing all geometric details without requiring physical plaster casts. This digital copy preserves the full design variation and complexity that would otherwise require multiple plaster molding iterations, but it achieves the same result much faster by eliminating the time-consuming physical casting process entirely.

The patent changes the material and manufacturing parameters by using additive manufacturing instead of hand-molding thermoplastic. The 3D printing process allows for precise control of material deposition, layer thickness, and complex geometry without being constrained by the properties of thermoplastic substrates. This enables greater design flexibility in terms of material selection, thickness variation, and three-dimensional structure while maintaining ease of operation through automated manufacturing.

The patent employs composite material construction through additive manufacturing, allowing the use of multiple materials with different properties in a single device. The 3D printing process can incorporate various polymers, metals, or composite materials to create protective devices with optimized strength, flexibility, and comfort characteristics, overcoming the material constraints of traditional thermoplastic hand-molding.