28 Mar 09 Four INpact Members Work to Help Therametric Technologies
Therametric Technologies, Inc. (TTI), an Indianapolis, IN based dental device company, is developing a device for caries detection–a precursor to cativity detection. From TTI’s website:
It is well known that the pre-cavitation portion of the caries process involves daily periods of enamel demineralization over a prolonged period on time ranging from 2 to 5 years. It has also been recognized by dental practitioners and scientifically demonstrated that it is possible to reverse the caries process through measures that induce and facilitate remineralization of the enamel. It follows that the detection of the caries process during these early periods of excessive demineralization but well in advance of cavitation provides the opportunity for the implementation of professional intervention measures to reverse and control the process rather than revert to restorative procedures after the lesion has developed into the advanced cavitation phase.
TTI needed help developing a prototype and needed it fast. They had sites lined up to do some feasibility testing but had no prototypes. Their first stop was the RND Group – a custom medical device software firm in Indianapolis, IN. While RND is well-equipped to design and develop a PC application for TTI, they are not experts in hardware and embedded firmware design and development. Because of INpact, Tom Gardner of RND Group introduced TTI to Larry O’Cull of Priio – a “total package” product development firm specializing in electronics with intelligent interactive software based in Indianapolis, IN.
Speed was very important to Therametric Technologies. Priio worked with TTI to establish a plan of attack for designing an ergonomic hand-held device that could be designed, developed, and prototyped in 4 weeks. Priio leveraged its relationship with Creo Quality (Martinsville, IN) to assist with medical device product development expertise. But because of the time constraints, mechanical packaging was a potential issue. Not enough time for tooling–even rapid prototype tooling. Instead, Priio explored other rapid-prototyping methods and decided to contact Bill Fletcher of Online Resources, Inc. (Lebanon, IN)–a relationship that was formed because of INpact.
Online Resources took the industrial and mechanical design data provided by Priio and “grew” parts on their Z-Corp 3D printer. These parts were delivered back to Priio in under 3 days. The parts were finished, the hardware and firmware installed, and finished prototypes were delivered to TTI and RND Group to finish the PC application.
All of this happened in about a month. And now, TTI has prototypes out in the hands of end users for further development.
Tags: creo quality, Indiana, medical device, online resources, priio, product development, rnd group, therametric technologies, tti
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[...] Therametric Technologies is developing a novel new dental device. They needed help and tapped into the INpact network of resources for help.The result: 5 ready to use prototypes in about a month. Talk about fast! Read more here. [...]