On 1/1/2013 2:51 PM, Martin Gregorie wrote:

I've done a little research and have discovered that the generic term for
all these products is 'splinting materials', which are roughly split into
two types of material:

1) "casting tape". This is a knitted synthetic fiberglass fabric
impregnated with a water-activated polyurethane resin. This is dipped in
room temperature water for about 10 secs, squeezed to remove the excess
water and smoothed into position using gloves. It sets in 3-5 mins and,
in the case of a splint is hard enough to be load-bearing in 20 mins.
The tape is 50-100mm wide and seems to come in 2m lengths. Load bearing
structures are typically 3-6 layers thick and load-bearing splints are
recommended to be 4 layers.

2) sheets of solid or perforated thermosetting plastic which are cut to
shape, heated to soften and then moulded around whatever they are meant
to fit. This material is quite a bit more expensive than casting tape.

Confusingly, 'Aquaplast' seems to be the thermoset material rather than
casting tape. Some brand names for casting tape a

- 3M Scotchcast Plus Casting Tapes
- Alto Cast
- Ossur Techform

These are available from medical supply houses and on eBay.

OTOH, you may find its cheaper to pick up some glasscloth, epoxy resin
and a decent release film from your local model store and use these to
make the wing glove from these: you'll need the release film in either
case.

The Aquaplast looks great, but I'll stick with the cloth and epoxy, I think.


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Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)nyurl.com/yfs7tnz