Abstract
With the increase in number of the athletic population and elderly demographic, the demand for orthopedic splints, which are used to support a damaged body, has rapidly increased. Current splints mainly consist of inner and outer parts, which are multiple fabrics covered with polyurethane and nonwoven fabrics, respectively. However, the laminated materials with directly applied pre-polymer coating lead to a high defect rate because of the uneven thickness on the surface. Thus, this study proposes an indirect coating method using a precise clearance controller, which enables the even application of the coating material on multiple inner parts while maintaining a constant thickness. In addition, a roll-to-roll (R2R) technique is applied instead of the sewing mechanism to bond the inner and outer materials together and enhance the productivity in the final stage. In the advanced methods, there is a storage tank that contains polyurethane, a clearance controller, and pairs of rollers in the upper and lower rows. To improve the quality of the products and optimize the equipment, three controllable factors are determined: the viscosity of polyurethane, angle of the gap controller and number of pairs of rollers in the R2R system.
