RESPONSES: Laminating Artwork Into a Socket

RESPONSES: Laminating Artwork Into a Socket

Marino Reyes (Prosthetic Resident)

10/21/2010

Here's a bunch of responses...I was able to speak with a practitioner on the
west coast who told me to use E-R resin from PRS (100resin/40hardner
ratio)which is suppose to finish nicely without a yellow discoloration like
foresee epox-acryl does...E-R resin sets off quickly, stays thin and is very
rigid. I was told by a couple of people to use the resin from ottobock
which supposedly has 13min of work time before setting off and has a clear
finish. I was actually told by another tech that he laminates paper onto
sockets and has had a lot of success. Overall 1 stage lamination is ok but
2 stage lamination has a cleaner finish.

COPY/PASTED RESPONSES ARE:

Use 100% cotton fabric. If there is any spandex, glitter or metalic threads
it will react poorly to the acrylic. Make sure the size of your design will
fit onto the socket especially if you are planning any window cutouts. Then
just do your normal layup and you can use spray glue to put your design onto
your felt layer.


If he or yourself can get the image on a t-shirt, then after your normal
lamination, slightly scratch the surface for the new layer of lamination to
bond to, sew the t-shirt into a sock to fit the socket, fit it on the
socket, turn your PVA bag inside out to give the finish a wet look, use a
clear drying resin such as carbon acryl, and with very little suction, just
enough to close PVA bag against the socket and laminate as regular. Custom
lamination!


Hello Marino, One way to do this is to cut your t-shirt so that it can lay
flat. Lighty spray glue your design onto some thin felt,stretching the
t-shirt as you adhere to felt. This will keep your ends from curling. Cut
along the edges of your design. Lightly spray glue to your layup and pull
thin nylon hosery over top to hold in place while laminating. Hope this
helps and makes sense.


one nurses nylon over the art work patch so it does not float, if you are
using a dark color fabric, greens and browns like camo, try adding a little
white pigment to the resin, takes away the yellow color, you dont need much,
maybe 1 percent at most.


I recommend talking with Craig at Evolution liners. Evolution does a
phenomenal job with this sort of thing, and will central fab sockets.
I've included their support email in this reply.


best thing to do is get the actual t-shirt cut out the design, stitch the
edges, do your layup with carbon fiber as outer layer than spray glue design
in place and laminate with no pigment.


I was a tech for several years and hope to be
again. I'm also a left bk amp. If you print the design on a thin white
t-shirt, the shirt won't be visable as the last layup. The carbon will
show right through. Just don't use suplimation ink , as this will
become transluscent also ( I am displaced as a screen printer). Hope
that is one of several good answers you'll get!


I would recommend having it airbrushed. We had a guy visit our office
with samples of his work. It was outstanding. Custom Brace and Limb
central fab from Houston. www.custombraceandlimb.com


Pull three to four layers of carbon over the mold. Add the tee shirt and
then one to two layers of finish stockings. Pour clear resin and you are
done


Try liquidblue.com they have a new method of printing on t-shirts that does
not build up material on the surface. The resin fully saturates the t-shirt.
It's the only t-shirts that our c-fab uses that we can guarantee the finish
with. You can also cut out images from the t-shirt and place them on the
carbon fiber and laminate.
check out our gallery for examples www.evoii.com/gallery.html


The best way to laminate in a design is to get a pre-printed material with
the design silk screened or printed on the fibers.You will not get good
results with an iron on style design because the laminate will not saturate
the fibres completly. It will sit under the iron on and you will get air
bubbles and heartache. I tried this with an autographed shirt of a Country
singer for a patient and it was a disaster for us both because it was my
first one and I did not realize this. A pre-washed (in cold water to fix the
color) material from a fabric store is the best choice. Send your patient to
a Fabricland or Wal-Mart to see if there is anything that is workable for
your needs. Custom designs HAVE to be able to be saturated with the
laminating resin. Make the material cotton or another natural fibre. If you
use Lycra or a stretchy material, when you string out the resin. . Make sure
you have a TIGHTLY fitting cone around your cast, do not try to float or
place the design on a background unless it is secured with spray glue, you
will probably move the pattern. I used 2 sided tape and, disaster again, as
the resin did not saturate through the tape sufficiently.There you go, 2
disasters averted! I did them first.


I use spray glue to put it on the layup before putting the final bag on.
Seems to work ok. Cool idea with the custom shirts.

Marino Reyes (Prosthetic Resident)
Quirantes Orthopedic
Miami, FL