Design, Development and Control of a Forming Robot for an Internally Fixed Titanium Alloy Strip

Abstract

Medical titanium alloys are widely used in surgery, orthopedics, stomatology and other medical specialties because of their good biocompatibility. In traditional rigid internal fixation applications, titanium alloy strips or plates must be bent to fit the supported surface. Currently, the common practice is to bend titanium alloy bars in three degrees of freedom manually. However, it is difficult to ensure bending accuracy and achieve the best shape. In this study, we introduce a forming robot for internally fixed titanium alloy strips (FRIFTAS). The forming robot is a device that automatically reshapes the titanium strip with various specifications according to medical needs. Here, the design of mechanical and electrical systems and the development of the overall system are described to illustrate how a FRIFTAS is structured and designed. Three bending experimental tests are conducted. In the bending experiments, the robot bends an initial strip on the roll, pitch and yaw directions independently. The results show that the robot can bend a section of the alloy strip at the desired angle. Then, an overall reshaped titanium alloy strip experiment is discussed. The results show that the titanium-strip-forming robot is capable of automatically reshaping an internally fixed titanium strip. The proposed robot can perform the numerically controlled bending of the medical titanium strip according to physicians’ personalized requirements for surgery to improve the accuracy and efficiency of preoperative preparation and provide a better postoperative appearance and more effectively functioning treatment scheme for patients.