03/17/2022 - 15mn
3D printed and tailor-made: orthopedic insoles made with advanced bio-circular polyamide 11
Orthopedic insoles are highly customized devices fabricated by podiatrists for each patients’ personalized needs. Manufacturing and fitting orthopedic insoles can be long processes that involve multiple exchanges and trials with the physician. In this case-study, we present XFeet-Orthotics’ disruptive innovation of 3D printed orthopedic soles with sustainable bio-based advanced material. Discover how digital manufacturing with high performance materials can answer both physicians’ and patients’ needs for personalized, custom-made orthotics.
MARKET: Medical Devices
PARTNER: XFeet - XFeet-orthotics.com
TECHNOLOGY: Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing
APPLICATION: Orthopedic insoles
MATERIAL: HP 3D HR PA11
The manufacture of orthopedic insoles involves two major issues:
- Taking measurements, adapting to patient needs, then making the insoles by assembling and milling different layers of materials requires significant working time and waiting times for the patient.
- A single sole requires the use of different materials which do not all have the same lifespan or the same performance over time. This disparity of materials makes the performance of the entire structure difficult for podiatrists to analyze.
The french startup XFeet has developed a revolutionary digital manufacturing solution with biosourced materials. Four complementary steps are enough to obtain tailor-made soles in an optimized way: digitization, use of design software, 3D printing of the soles and shipping.