Brace Yourself: Redesigning the Charleston Back Brace

Figure 11. Charleston bending brace. This is used to treat AIS n
patients and works by bending their spine against the curve. It is
worn in the nighttime (Cowan, 2008).
The Boston brace is worn for 23 hours a day and it is not curved, but straight
and rigid. It uses pressure pads that push the spine into a straighter position. The
brace also exerts a force on the ribs and back and gives the patient a near perfect
upright posture. The only problem with using the brace is that it can lead to a loss of
flexibility in the patient’s spine due to the brace’s rigidness and the inability to move
while wearing it (U.S. Patent No. 2007/0010768A1, 2010).
Figure 12. Boston brace. This is the day brace worn by patients with
scoliosis. It is rigid and straight and it corrects the spine by using pressure
pads (“Types of braces for scoliosis”, 2007).
Material Science
Copolymer plastic sheets are a mix of polypropylene and low-density
polyethylene. When they are heated they become self-adhesive and have the ability
to be shaped when used with a vacuum. The sheets are usually heated between 163°
C to 191 ° C and the Copolymer is less brittle than polypropylene alone, however the
plastic can experience blanching, shrinking, or bubbling during high stress and
temperatures (“Polypropylene-co-polymer plastic sheets”, n.d.).
Polypropylene is a resin composed of the polymerization of propylene. These
plastics are tough, flexible, lightweight, and heat resistant. The propylene compound
is obtained by the thermal cracking of ethane, propane, butane, and the naphtha
fraction of petroleum. The chemical structure of this is CH2=CHCH3 and consists of
carbon atoms bonded to hydrogen atoms. The polypropylene is stiffer, stronger,
harder, and softens at much higher temperatures than polyethylene
(“Polypropylene”, 2012).
Polyethylene is a synthetic resin made from the polymerization of Ethylene.
The gaseous hydrocarbon is made from cracking ethane that can be retrieved from