Create O&P Adds Vorum’s Canfit Software to Latest 3D Printing Package, Letting Clinicians Design Their Own Devices

3D printing orthotic and prosthetic manufacturer Create O&P, based in New York, hit the 3D printing headlines this summer when it made the first medical-grade 3D printed arm for a survivor of the Haiti earthquake, and soon after introduced the Create 3400, the world’s first and only fully integrated medical-grade 3D printer for orthotic and prosthetic devices. The company is now teaming up with Canadian tech firm Vorum to offer North American clinics and providers of custom prosthetic devices a brand new, in-house 3D printing solution. As a part of its newest CAD/CAM printing system package, Create O&P has announced that it will now be offering Vorum’s Canfit 3D O&P Design software.

Using the Canfit software, which is currently in use at 700 facilities worldwide, clinicians who work with Create O&P won’t even have to leave their offices in order to digitally scan, modify, and manufacture their own devices. A Vorum partnership with another Canadian company, Nia Technologies, also leveraged the company’s Canfit software, in order to enhance its digital toolchain and bring 3D printed orthotics to Uganda.

Vorum Founder and CEO Carl Saunders said, “Create O&P are the pioneers in selling and supporting 3D printing systems in the O&P industry. The use of 3D printing technology is an exciting evolution in CAD/CAM for O&P, and we are pleased that Create decided to offer Vorum’s Canfit O&P CAD software as part of their solution.”

This new Create O&P technology package is the first complete solution for O&P clinics that want the capability of designing and 3D printing custom devices in-house. The package includes:

• Create 3400 3D printer
• scanner
• custom designs
• technical support
• one-year subscription to Vorum’s Canfit software

The subscription also includes a six-hour training session on trans-tibial sockets. In addition to 3D printing flexible inner sockets, clinicians who use the Create 3400 system can also print out partial hands, unique leg covers, arms, fingers, O&P molds, and wrist braces; Create O&P says more designs are soon to come.

The version of Vorum’s Canfit software that’s included in Create O&P’s new package is a 3D printing-specific one, giving clinicians access to high-precision trans-tibial prosthetic socket design tools, like the ability to apply anatomically-correct shape modifications quickly and then track the modifications. The software also allows users to add pressure and relief points, overlay X-rays and images, control the thickness of 3D printed devices, preview the device before it’s printed, and define trim lines with Vorum’s patent-pending exclusive variable flaring.

The Create O&P technology package basically takes a practitioner’s existing process and introduces it to a digital production platform. Clinicians can scan a patient’s limb, or a mold, and while modifying the scan with the Canfit software, can adjust the “digital plaster” exactly how they need it for a diagnostic socket. Then the Create 3400 3D printer’s online coder converts the design automatically, turning it into a 3D printable file that is then inserted into the Create 3400.

Create O&P CEO Jeff Erenstone explained, “3D printed devices are better because they provide faster design than traditional plaster-based methods, are completely quantifiable, are completely adjustable and are completely reproducible. 3D printing is a tool, but it takes a skilled practitioner and technician to use it. We should call it by its real name – additive manufacturing. The addition of Vorum’s Canfit software adds a new element to our package that allows prosthetists to design their own custom devices. This software is used by thousands of clinicians worldwide because of its ease of use and customer support. We are proud to offer Canfit to our 3D printing system customers.”

To learn more about how Vorum’s Canfit software works, take a look at the overview video:

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