Heat and Acrylic sockets
Richard Ziegeler
Description
Collection
Title:
Heat and Acrylic sockets
Creator:
Richard Ziegeler
Date:
2/8/2005
Text:
Herewith the responses from my query of a couple of weeks ago.
(my original post)
This one that I haven't had to deal with before. I have used a central fab facility in the distant Capital city (Melbourne Australia). Recently, the weather here has been quite hot, but not unusually so. When I received the latest socket back from the central fab folks by road courier, it was unbelievably distorted, in fact it was flat! My only guess is that the parcel had sat in the back of the truck for some time and the oven-like heat had softened the acrylic resin!
Apart from wondering what happens to the contents of other parcels, I have wondered what to do to rectify the socket. Only a test fit will tell me if my efforts to resoften the socket with gentle heat and relying on some memory in the polymer have been successful.
This may serve as a warning for other practitioners in similar situations. The couriers don't know (or care). Richard Ziegeler P&O
>>I have many years experience in O & P. I believe that the material (resin)
used in your socket was not acrylic at all. It's more likely polyester or a
blend of the same. Living in south Texas we have high temps as well. I have
only seen this in fabricated prosthesis using polyester resin. Usually
someone leaves his leg ect. in the car or trunk and it becomes distorted.
Cosmetic foam coves as well. If you do a check and find that it is indeed
acrylic resin find out which brand and forward a note to me.
===
Hello from Iowa, USA.
Same thing happened here with gel liners one summer. Melted the gel walls
together and we could not separate them. Rarely gets over 100 degrees F
here. Suggest you try shipping your cast to them in a cooler with an
unfrozen ice pack. Then they could ship your cooler back to you after they
have frozen the ice pack for you. Put the cooler in a box. Costs a little
more but not as much as time and costs for remaking the socket. It worked
for us. Good luck.
===
Put the thing in a refrigerator to restore its original shape.
As it was, I gently heated the squashed socket with a hand held heat gun and hoped for the partial 'memory' of the polymer to do its stuff. I was pleased to find that this was the case and the socket slowly returned to its original conformation (thank the powers!)
Thankyou for all replies.
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(my original post)
This one that I haven't had to deal with before. I have used a central fab facility in the distant Capital city (Melbourne Australia). Recently, the weather here has been quite hot, but not unusually so. When I received the latest socket back from the central fab folks by road courier, it was unbelievably distorted, in fact it was flat! My only guess is that the parcel had sat in the back of the truck for some time and the oven-like heat had softened the acrylic resin!
Apart from wondering what happens to the contents of other parcels, I have wondered what to do to rectify the socket. Only a test fit will tell me if my efforts to resoften the socket with gentle heat and relying on some memory in the polymer have been successful.
This may serve as a warning for other practitioners in similar situations. The couriers don't know (or care). Richard Ziegeler P&O
>>I have many years experience in O & P. I believe that the material (resin)
used in your socket was not acrylic at all. It's more likely polyester or a
blend of the same. Living in south Texas we have high temps as well. I have
only seen this in fabricated prosthesis using polyester resin. Usually
someone leaves his leg ect. in the car or trunk and it becomes distorted.
Cosmetic foam coves as well. If you do a check and find that it is indeed
acrylic resin find out which brand and forward a note to me.
===
Hello from Iowa, USA.
Same thing happened here with gel liners one summer. Melted the gel walls
together and we could not separate them. Rarely gets over 100 degrees F
here. Suggest you try shipping your cast to them in a cooler with an
unfrozen ice pack. Then they could ship your cooler back to you after they
have frozen the ice pack for you. Put the cooler in a box. Costs a little
more but not as much as time and costs for remaking the socket. It worked
for us. Good luck.
===
Put the thing in a refrigerator to restore its original shape.
As it was, I gently heated the squashed socket with a hand held heat gun and hoped for the partial 'memory' of the polymer to do its stuff. I was pleased to find that this was the case and the socket slowly returned to its original conformation (thank the powers!)
Thankyou for all replies.
********************
To unsubscribe, send a message to: <Email Address Redacted> with
the words UNSUB OANDP-L in the body of the
message.
If you have a problem unsubscribing,or have other
questions, send e-mail to the moderator
Paul E. Prusakowski,CPO at <Email Address Redacted>
OANDP-L is a forum for the discussion of topics
related to Orthotics and Prosthetics.
Public commercial postings are forbidden. Responses to inquiries
should not be sent to the entire oandp-l list. Professional credentials
or affiliations should be used in all communications.
Citation
Richard Ziegeler, “Heat and Acrylic sockets,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 25, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/224312.
