Pediatric arch support

A sewn arch sleeve with a gel insert, designed by our team for children aged 5 to 7 with flat feet. I researched existing treatments, drew the system diagram, helped with the analysis and drafted the verification matrix. The team built a V2 prototype (beta), a design brief and a verification plan.

Course: BME 3050 Medical Device Design, University of Cincinnati, summer 2026
My part: Clinical contact, research and system analysis
Built: V2 prototype, design brief, verification plan

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Pediatric arch support

Our team designed a sleeve with a gel insert to support the arch in children aged 5 to 7 with symptomatic flat feet.

Flat feet are common in young children. For some they hurt: sore feet, ankles and shins. Rigid orthotics are fixed in size and need replacing as the foot grows, so we built a sleeve that pulls on like a sock and holds a gel insert.

BME 3050 Medical Device Design, University of Cincinnati, summer 2026. I was the clinical-contact coordinator on Group 11.

Flat arch

Supported arch

Wet-test footprints, sole view. Teaching illustration.

How an arch works

The inner arch of the foot is a bridge. The heel bone, midfoot bones and the first metatarsal form the span, and a band under the foot, the plantar fascia, ties the two ends together. Doctors call it the medial longitudinal arch. In a flat foot the bridge sinks and the whole sole meets the floor.

Scrolling raises the arch. Use the slider to adjust it.

Wet-test print, sole view

Calcaneus (heel bone)
Talus
Navicular
Medial cuneiform
First metatarsal
Plantar fascia

Raise the arch

Supported. The heel, outer edge and ball still print, and the midfoot narrows.

Orange: the insert, drawn as stacked layers under the arch. The pale line under the skin is the plantar fascia.

The arch lowers

In a flat foot, the bridge sinks and the midfoot print widens.

The bridge rises

The heel, midfoot bones and first metatarsal form the span. The plantar fascia ties the heel to the ball.

Space for the insert

The orange layers fill the space beneath the arch. The heel, outer edge and ball still meet the floor.

What we built

Version 2 (beta) is a sewn sleeve with a pocket and a gel insert. V2 used a gel pad. Version 1, cardboard and foam in a standard sock, gave the lift but was not stable, so we moved to gel pads in compression sleeves.

Scrolling assembles the sleeve. Drag the build slider to inspect a part.

Sleeve, pocket, insert and strapInsert drawn as stacked layers.

Sleeve
Breathable muslin that pulls over the foot like a sock.
Pocket
Reinforced stitching holds the gel pad under the arch.
Insert
A gel pad with an adhesive layer fills the space under the arch.
Strap
An elastic band at the heel guides placement.

Targets from the brief: room for 10% growth, a 150 N ground-reaction load and a midfoot under 8 mm.

Fig. 1 The four pieces we cut the sleeve from. Design review, page 8
Fig. 2 Four user needs and the test planned for each. Design review, page 5
Fig. 3 The arch as a windlass, and sleeve stress at 10% strain. Design review, page 9

How we tested it

We put a 30 lb dumbbell on the V2 insert: three holds of 1 minute, then three drops from 1 foot. Pass meant the insert stayed fully intact. One prototype went through the bench test.

Static hold 30 lb for 1 minute, three times.

Drop 30 lb from 1 foot, three times.

Bench results from the final report
Test	Load	Result
Static hold 1 to 3	30 lb, 1 minute	Insert unaffected
Drop 1 and 2	30 lb, 1 foot	Insert unaffected
Drop 3	30 lb, 1 foot	Insert slightly damaged, slight leakage

Fig. 4 A frame from the bench test in our report.
Fig. 5 The procedure as written for the bench test. Design review, page 11

What comes next

V3 is a plan. We ran out of semester before building it, and our memo hands it to the next team. The third drop shows where to start: keeping the gel in.

A reinforced pouch and a printed TPU encasement to keep the gel in.
Inserts printed from a 3D scan of each foot.
A gait study with children, before any claim that it corrects the arch.

Proposed, not built

V3 as planned: a molded insert in a reinforced pouch, drawn dashed because it does not exist yet.

Documents

Three team reports with a note on each key page.