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Delcam Healthcare Solutions: CAD-CAM built to fit you and your business

By LER staff

Delcam is a supplier of advanced CAD-CAM solutions for various manufacturing industries. Customers can use Delcam’s technology to move seamlessly from concept to reality in the design and creation of products with complex shapes, making it the ideal solution for custom orthotic design and manufacture.

Started more than 20 years ago in Birmingham, UK, Delcam now has corporate headquarters in the US and Canada, and more than 300 offices worldwide. Sales and support offices offer local training and support for new and experienced users.

To respond to the recent significant growth in healthcare applications, Delcam created a Healthcare Solutions Division (delcam-healthcare.com) that manages the CAD-CAM suite for scanning, designing, and fabricating custom orthotic insoles (visit orthotics-cadcam.com to learn more).

The division allows Delcam to provide greater focus on specific medical industries and assist these companies with production of high-quality products. With Delcam’s expertise and experience in CAD-CAM, companies can take advantage of the latest design and manufacturing techniques to service patients as quickly and effectively as possible.

The Healthcare Solutions Division, including development of the software and scanners, is located at Delcam’s international headquarters in Birmingham. Sales and support offices for North America are in Salt Lake City, UT, Windsor, Ontario, and Fort Myers, FL.

As a CAD-CAM supplier, Delcam offers its software either as a complete solution or as a series of stand-alone products and can provide a comprehensive design-through-manufacture system for companies that are new to CAD-CAM or looking to replace old software.

Alternatively, Delcam can supply individual software programs for companies aiming to increase the performance of their existing systems.

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Maida Koller, vice president of sales for Delcam North America, said, “We are definitely unique amongst other software suppliers in the O&P market, not only because of our size, but also in our development strategy. We develop a huge amount of new and innovative technology each year.”

Delcam has more than 250 developers working on new technology every day, she said.

The innovation the company develops for one product, such as PowerShape, Delcam’s integrated solid, surface, and triangle CAD product (typically used in high-tech industries such as aerospace and automotive engineering), informs the development of other products, such as OrthoModel, a simple yet powerful software tool practitioners can use to design any type and complexity of corrective or accommodative custom orthotic insoles.

“Even though we are a very large global company with different CAD and CAM products for different markets, our size has never impacted the quality of our products in the niche markets like custom orthotics,” said Koller. “We can create user-friendly solutions that are clean, fast, easy, precise, and profitable because we listen to our customers. We rely on the feedback we get from customers and industry leaders to develop leading products that are suitable for what the market requires.”

Delcam is also heavily involved in a number of international educational conferences and technology forums.

“The best part of my job is talking with people and introducing them to technology, sharing ideas, and discovering best practices that will benefit the industry,” said Koller, who noted that the concept of shared ideas is behind its series of Ortho­tics Technology Forums, which are typically cosponsored by Delcam and a leading university, as well as companies in the O&P field.

Delcam hosted its first technology forum in 2011 in Bath, UK, and in 2013 held the event for the first time in the US at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, where close to 100 attendees from around the globe gathered to discuss digital technology in orthotic application, design, and manufacture.

Guest speakers also discussed new ideas for strategic business improvements, such as methods of increasing productivity and reducing manufacturing costs. (View highlights of the 2013 forum at delcam.tv/otf2013.)

The Orthotic Technology Forum is now in its fourth year and, in 2014, will be held in both the US and Europe, Koller said. The US event is planned for June 5 and 6 at Loyola University in Chicago. The European forum is scheduled to be held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on September 18.

For more information about the 2014 Orthotics Technology Forum go to orthotics-technology-forum.com.

New software for 2014

Delcam has just released OrthoModel Pro, a new version of its design software. The Pro version software supports any type of correction or add-on, including posts, skives, arch fillers, metatarsal domes, cobra cut outs, Morton’s extensions, and much more. Users can design rigid polypropylene devices for correcting gait, or foot positives for vacuum forming

OrthoModel software allows practitioners to design soft anatomical insoles suitable for diabetic patients. It is fully configurable so each user can work as they desire, but quickly and simply. The software is driven by Delcam’s award-winning CAD engine and steered by an interface designed by orthotists and podiatrists that provides flexibility so practitioners can apply their design knowledge and experience, Koller said.

Article sponsored by Delcam.

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