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Using Delcam’s CADCAM software to design and manufacture its custom orthotic insoles has allowed Salts Techstep to increase dramatically the number of devices that the company can produce. Over five years, the volume increased from about 50 pairs per month to more than 1,000.
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Other benefits from the change include a reduction in the delivery time from a minimum of 72 hours using the previous manual methods to as little as an hour for urgent cases using the digital approach. In addition, Salts Techstep no longer has to store fragile plaster casts taken from the patients as it can keep a digital record of the scanned foot data indefinitely. This saves a large amount of valuable space, as well as enabling a better service to patients requiring long-term treatments.
Salts Techstep is part of the Salts Healthcare Group, one of the longest-established family businesses in the United Kingdom with a history stretching back more than 300 years. The Birmingham-based company is the established UK leader in the design and manufacture of custom-made footwear and appliances. As well as the large range of insoles, its products include surgical footwear, orthopedic shoes and sandals, special shoes for patients with diabetes and rheumatism, and pediatric school shoes and boots.
Phil Wells, technical support manager at Salts Techstep, was an early enthusiast for using CADCAM in the orthotics business. He started out by customizing Delcam’s standard engineering software, PowerSHAPE for design and PowerMILL for machining. With this experience, he was an obvious choice for Delcam when it was putting together a panel of experts to guide the development of its dedicated OrthoModel software for orthotics design.
In addition to making the most of the Delcam software, Wells has built up a variety of machine tools to optimize productivity. “With the Delcam software and the size of the machine tools that we use, we can keep costs much lower, and we can manufacture much higher volumes,” he says.
Wells has introduced a number of developments to reduce manufacturing times, including making a series of dedicated jigs for the standard-sized blocks of material and adding vacuum beds to the machines to simplify and speed up the loading of the blocks. He also spent considerable time experimenting with different tooling before finding cutters that could run for up to 12 months without needing to be replaced.
The latest addition to the equipment has been Delcam’s iQube scanner, which Wells describes as “the best foot scanner I have ever seen.” He is encouraging his customers to add their own scanners so that they can email the scans to Salts Techstep for the design and manufacture of the required orthotics. Alternatively, podiatrists can add the Delcam design software and then send their completed designs into the company for manufacturing.
Using digital production methods has also enabled other developments in the production of the orthotics. The finer finish that is possible with milling means that the top cover needed for hand-made orthotics can often be eliminated, further reducing costs and saving more time.
Milling has also allowed a wider range of materials to be used, enabling a greater variety of properties to be incorporated into the orthotics. Initially, polyurethane (PU) materials were used alongside the usual ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA). Although they are around 20-percent more expensive, PU materials are more durable, lasting up to five times longer, and so can be more cost-effective. In addition, different grades of PU can be used in a single orthotic to give different properties in different regions of the device.
Wells has also experimented for many years with polypropylene orthotics, including the first production of standard Root-style devices using CADCAM methods. The material is more durable than PU and is also more rigid, which can be important for some treatments and for some sports orthotics.
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