Photo: Tom Claes | Unsplash
Fiberglass casts, developed in the 1970s, were clunky, heavy, and susceptible to breaking. 50 years later, traditional fiberglass casts are lighter and stronger, but problems remain: they sweat, itch, smell, and they can’t get wet. Now, engineers from the University of Singapore have created a more comfortable, breathable alternative: the Castomize self-molding cast. In an interview, engineer Abel Tao said he and his research team first met while attending the university. Their student project “pivoted towards orthopedic casts” after their co-founder, Peng Mao Yu, fractured his arm while mountaineering. “[He] complained so much about his cast and how inconvenient it was,” Tao laughed. “It was clear to us then that there [was] room for improvement in this space,” he added. Through careful tinkering, Tao, Mao, and their team created a lightweight, waterproof fracture cast that self-molds to the patient’s arm for a precise fit. Their secret ingredient is the 4D printing technology: a process that allows 3D-printed materials to change through the application of time and an energy source like heat. “Our cast can be taken apart and reshaped with heat [131°F] according to the patient’s needs,” Castomize co-founder Johannes Sunarko told Singapore Magazine in 2023.
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