Joshua Barbur
Prosthetic printed with Essentium's High Speed Extrusion platform - Vorum
Prosthetic printed with Essentium's High Speed Extrusion platform.
Essentium’s High Speed Extrusion (HSE) 3D printing platform is now being offered to orthotics and prosthetics (O&P) practitioners by CAD/CAM solutions provider Vorum.
The companies have agreed an exclusive global partnership which seeks to serve practitioners in the successful adoption and application of 3D printing for O&P devices. It will see the companies combine 3D printing and computer aided design and manufacturing technology with a comprehensive training methodology developed by Vorum called SurePath.
By bringing together their respective expertise, the Essentium + Vorum partnership is hoping to facilitate the 3D printing of tailor-made O&P devices with optimal strength and weight, eliminating the barriers imposed on O&P design and manufacture with more traditional techniques. Essentium’s HSE platform has been designed to manufacture parts at speed and scale and is supplemented by a wide range of high-performance materials, while Vorum offers the required 3D scanning and modelling technology to create customised designs for O&P customers.
Joshua Barbur
Essentium Vorum Prostehtic
Vorum’s SurePath methodology, meanwhile, will give O&P practitioners assistance with installation and training, while also setting out a transition plan to take them from plaster-casting methods to 3D printing. This plan will establish a rollout time and set achievable targets for business performance improvements throughout the first year, after Vorum has first benchmarked the practitioners’ existing performance.
With this comprehensive offering of scanning, modelling, printing and support, the Essentium + Vorum collaboration believes it is providing all the tools to facilitate the mass customisation of durable O&P products at speed, allaying any concerns practitioners may have about changing up their manufacturing approaches.
“Our partnership with Essentium means we can offer O&P customers the confidence that they will have the device they desire every time they print,” commented Carl Saunders, CEO and founder of Vorum. “We know that practitioners don’t want to waste their time with experimental technology – they want to know that their investment in a 3D print solution will deliver the best devices for their patients. With our SurePath solution, we know that what Vorum can provide in collaboration with Essentium is a trusted end-to-end solution for the digital design and manufacture of orthotics and prosthetics that have the ability to improve people’s lives.”
“Our ground-breaking 3D printing platform combined with Vorum’s expertise will not only help O&P customers embrace a faster, more efficient method for producing custom-made orthotics and prosthetics, but the medical devices will also be produced with high quality and durability,” added Blake Teipel, CEO and co-founder of Essentium. “Together, we are re-writing the business and production model for O&P professionals that bring profoundly important mobility and independence to their patients.”
