Browsing by Author "Plettenburg, Dick H."

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    Design Of A Hydraulic Hand Prosthesis, With Articulating Fingers
    (2011) Smit, Gerwin; Plettenburg, Dick H.
    Rejection rates of body-powered hands are higher than that of hooks. Body powered hands are inefficient. As a result they require an uncomfortable high activation force, and produce a relatively low pinch force in return (<15 N). Also they have stiff fingers, which do not adapt to the shape of the grasped object. Despite all the drawbacks of the current hands, the design of body powered hand prostheses almost has not changed since the 1950’s. The activation force has not been reduced. The pinch force is still low, and hand prostheses are still quite heavy. There have been attempts to increase the efficiency of body powered hand prostheses, by using hydraulics. However, these studies have not resulted in the commercial application of hydraulics in body powered arm prostheses.
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    Feedback In Voluntary Closing Arm Prostheses
    (2011) Plettenburg, Dick H.; Hichert, Mona; Smit, Gerwin
    The purpose of this study was to find an optimal operation force, at which the prosthetic user receives the best force feedback during comfortable prosthesis operation. Three performance factors were introduced: reproducibility, stability, and repeatability.
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    THE WILMER PASSIVE HAND PROSTHESIS FOR TODDLERS
    (2008) Plettenburg, Dick H.
    The WILMER Passive Hand Prosthesis is developed for children aged one through five years. This harnessless hand prosthesis aims primarily at giving the child two arms of equal length. The hand features an easy to control passive prehension function. The movements of the fingers are mechanically coupled to the movements of the thumb. By pressing an object against the fingertips, the hand opens. By slightly tilting the object, it can be grasped. The hand prosthesis can be mounted in a passive friction wrist rotation prosthesis, available in different outer diameters. The hand features a low mass construction, which proved to be very robust and reliable in clinical tests. For the age group mentioned the WILMER Passive Hand Prosthesis is one of the very few available with a prehensile function. It stands out in functionality and in cosmetics as compared to other passive hand prostheses on the market.
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    Voluntary Closing Prostheses: An answer to user needs!
    (2011) Plettenburg, Dick H.; Smit, Gerwin