Niagara Foot - Jumping on the trail (GALLERY)

With people as John McCain, Republican presidential candidate, prepared to fight a hundred year war in Iraq we have to take a look at innovations in prosthesis for the veterans coming home without arms or legs (or even worse). The Niagara Foot is a new, affordable, high-performance prosthetic foot intended for active individuals who have been victims of landmines. In other words the Niagara Foot is made for active people before and after a landmine cut off their foot or leg. They can be active again and walk the trails. With a foot like this John McCain can easily send them back to the war zone.

The Niagara Foot was developed by Rob Gabourie, certified prosthetist and orthotist, and founder of Niagara Prosthetic & Orthotics International Ltd. (Ontario, Canada), in colloboration with Hippo Design (Montebello, Québec), Précicad (Québec City, Québec), DuPont (USA & Canada) and a team of engineers from Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario).

Its novelty is its energy-returning design relying on the stiff, yet flexible properties of DuPont Hytrel, a thermoplastic polyester elastomer providing the user benefits in terms of stability, effectiveness and comfort.
A key aspect of its design lies in its keel - a single, S-shaped part, injection-moulded from Hytrel 8238, which acts like a spring to provide energy storage and return during the gait cycle. “The energy-return principle incorporated into the design of the Niagara Foot allows the user to walk more naturally than conventional designs,” explains Rob Gabourie. “Patients are able to detect and appreciate the performance of this device, which decreases the muscular effort required for walking.”

During static testing, whereby a force was applied to the toe and the heel of the foot and held for a period of time, the Niagara Foot exceeded the 3220 Newton (N) required for heel loading and 2790 N required for toe loading. A number of other materials, including polyoxymethylenes (POM) and polyamides, were unable to reach these milestones due to deformation or, in some cases, structural failure.

The geometry of the current design requires abnormally thick wall sections, yet because Hytrel flows easily to produce a well-packed part, the occurrence of voids is eliminated.

Niagara Foot Model 1 is available in a single length with an optional cosmetic cover. This foot is ideal for individuals who walk barefoot and for those who wear running shoes or work boots. This foot has been fully tested in field trials in Thailand and El Salvador.

The Niagara Foot Model 2 is an updated model that comes in a variety of adult sizes. This model is available with an optional cosmetic cover, also fitting off-the-shelf covers. Model 2 can be used either barefoot or in any shoe. With simple modifications the foot can be customized according to the weight, activity levels and personal preferences of the user.