Artificial Disc Replacement (ADR) for the Lumbar Spine
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Artificial Disk Replacement (ADR) for the Lumbar Spine ========================================== 4/20/2024 - Scott McCrory This is a remix of DaveMakesStuff's wonderful Articulating Lumbar Vertebrae at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4637241. I altered L4 and L5 to host an Artificial Disc Replacement (ADR) between them. You can optionally glue 10mm magnets in the disc endplates and spine levels to add and remove them easier for demonstration. I recommend printing the L4 and L5 joints in a bone-colored PLA. I got good results printing the joints in default orientation (endplate slots up) with organic supports, 10% gyroid infill, 0.20 layer height and a 0.6mm nozzle at conservative speeds. Print the endplates with default orientation of keels up, using silver/titanium colored PLA with 0.16mm layer height and 100% infill, and supports only necessary if you're going to use magnets. Print the dome in white PLA, 100% infill, no supports, 0.16mm layer height, then glue it to the lower endplate (CA/Super Glue works great). Everything should press-fit in place without much struggle, assuming your printer is reasonably well calibrated. For my desktop model, I also printed L3 from Dave's collection and created a TPU annulus to stand in as a biological disc above the ADR, then used a rubber band to hold L4 and L5 together - see pictures. Note that the current version is a rough approximation of ball-and-socket designs, and doesn't fully simulate the way they or especially elastomer core ADRs truly work, but they're close enough to get the concept across. I wanted to create a visualization of the several real ones I have in my own spine ;-). I might evolve this over time, so let me know if you have any special requests or even better, improvements or extensions! - Scott
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