College of Engineering Unit:
A common problem for many transfemoral amputees is excessive heat and moisture inside their prosthetic socket. Our group aims to tackle this problem by designing and developing a vacuum pump attachment focused on sweat management that is compatible with the many transfemoral prosthetic sockets that are already out there on the market today. The vacuum attachment aims to provide the amputee a comfortable fitting socket, while still being able to withstand daily and athletic use. Through our research and the interviews, our team has designed a vacuum pump attachment with an included sweat evacuation chamber that sits at the base of a transfemoral prosthetic socket.
The design of the vacuum pump focuses on creating a tight and secure fit of the prosthetic socket through vacuum suspension. Due to a low volume of air in the prosthetic socket, the vacuum pump requires minimal energy, with the majority of power consumption used when creating the initial seal of the socket to the residual limb. Once the target vacuum level is reached, the pump only needs to account for any vacuum losses. Our product is able to use a lightweight vacuum pump in order to achieve these requirements, as well as provide a comfortable and secure fit.
The product features a removable sweat evacuation container, allowing the user to periodically empty the container without having to remove their prosthetic. The sweat container will be housed in a cylindrical carbon-fiber design. The sweat chamber will be kept at a low pressure in order to pull sweat away from the prosthetic socket. Through the use of hydrophobic mesh, the sweat will be guided away from any electrical components and into the sweat container.
In order to remove sweat buildup, amputees need to remove their entire prosthesis to dump out any pooling sweat contained in the socket. This is both indiscreet and unsanitary. Our product focuses on better sweat management in prostheses, allowing users to dispose of sweat in a more discreet and less cumbersome way. We introduce the Sweat Sucker 9000.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 BIOE.11 Final Design Report.pdf | 3.08 MB |
| BIOE.11 Poster Presentation | 748.22 KB |