The Prosthetics and Orthotics Podcast
The Prosthetics and Orthotics Podcast is a deep dive into what 3D printing and Additive Manufacturing mean for prosthetics and orthotics. We’re Brent and Joris both passionate about 3D printing and Additive Manufacturing. We’re on a journey together to explore the digitization of prostheses and orthoses together. Join us! Have a question, suggestion or guest for us? Reach out. Or have a listen to the podcast here. The Prosthetic and Orthotic field is experiencing a revolution where manufacturing is being digitized. 3D scanning, CAD software, machine learning, automation software, apps, the internet, new materials and Additive Manufacturing are all impactful in and of themselves. These developments are now, in concert, collectively reshaping orthotics and prosthetics right now. We want to be on the cutting edge of these developments and understand them as they happen. We’ve decided to do a podcast to learn, understand and explore the revolution in prosthetics and orthotics.
The Prosthetics and Orthotics Podcast
Walking Through the AOPA National Assembly 2025: What You Need to Know
We preview the upcoming AOPA National Assembly in Orlando, discussing what makes this prosthetics and orthotics trade show valuable for professionals across the industry.
• AOPA (American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association) National Assembly happening September 3-6 in Orlando, Florida
• 165+ exhibitors representing various aspects of the O&P industry
• Educational tracks covering clinical, technical, business, and pedorthic topics
• Up to 34 continuing education credits available in person, with 100+ hours of online content afterward
• Hands-on technical laboratory for fabrication techniques and safety equipment demonstrations
• Digital Showcase featuring case studies and workflow solutions from different vendors
• Administrative Law Judge mock trial simulating insurance appeal processes
• Strong 3D printing presence with 33+ companies showcasing additive manufacturing solutions
• Notable exhibitors including long-established companies and first-time participants
• Importance of consistency at trade shows for building relationships and trust in the industry
• Networking opportunities that facilitate business connections and partnerships
Join us at the Prosthetics and Orthotics Podcast booth where we'll be broadcasting live throughout the event!
Special thanks to Advanced 3D for sponsoring this episode.
Welcome to Season 12 of the Prosthetics and Orthotics Podcast. This is where we connect with experts in the field, patients who use these devices, physical therapists and the vendors who help bring it all together. Our mission remains the same to share stories, tips and insights that help improve patient outcomes. Tune in and join the conversation. We're glad you're here and hope it's the highlight of your day.
Joris:Hello everyone, my name is Yoris Peebles and this is another episode of the Prosthetics and Orthotics Podcast with Brent Wright. How are you doing, brent?
Brent:Hey, yoris, I'm doing well, man, we missed you. Last week Katie did fill in with you.
Joris:I think you would have had a good time with Brad too, Is she better than I am? I don't know. I'm really worried that she's better than I am.
Brent:Well, you know what's crazy, what's interesting about having another clinician on that was also a technician is there's a different perspective there. Is there's a different perspective there, but I think we miss out. Well, I know we miss out on a lot of the not only the business side of things, but then just the so she is better.
Joris:You're saying that she's better.
Brent:I'm not going to win this one.
Joris:You can't, you can't, but no, no, I'm glad, no, I'm glad, I'm glad if I can't make it. The S one is really awesome and as a different perspective that's, I think it's a great for our listeners and stuff like that. Yeah, it's good, it's good stuff and I'm glad that it makes sense and still fun and stuff, so that's good.
Brent:Yeah, anyway, yeah, so it was anyway.
Joris:What do you want to talk about?
Brent:today? Well, the AOPA National Assembly. So AOPA is the American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association, and I know you get confused. What is AOPA, what is AAOP and what is this? And it is kind of crazy there's two different massive shows for the orthotic and prosthetic field field. This one, historically, has been um like more the business, vendor type, where the academy is more like individual, maybe research and such. But the reality is is that the they're kind of starting to look very similar, not to get too far into that, but but I do think that our field in general, because we're so small, would actually benefit from like one big show rather than two shows that look the same.
Brent:So again, your mileage may vary, your mileage may vary, but what I wanted to do today is just talk about the assembly kind of what's happening, and then go through maybe some of the vendors, some of the people, that guests that I would be excited about looking through and and, um, you know, this might be putting you on the spot a little bit. I guess we can always cut it later. But we can also say look at this list and be like, hey, these people actually aren't here this year and that's that's an interesting thing as well.
Brent:so I have no problems, uh, going there and and here's the reason why is and I and I shared this on my linkedin profile you know hp has been consistently at these shows for 3d printing for the last seven years and I know they're not making a ton of money off, if any, really on the prosthetic side of things. But they also understand that you have to be in the trenches with the people doing the work, not only for the respect but to say, hey, we're in here for the long haul with you guys, and I think that's important. So I'm actually just kind of curious what you think about that sort of thing, just with what you know about trade shows and such.
Joris:I don't know. Trade shows are difficult because, like, especially if you're an OEM or a big company or a big service, you always have to be there. You always end up spending more money than you'd like because these things are always too expensive and you never really know what the return on investment is. From a business point of view. It's always very difficult to figure out how much you invest in these things and how much you get back, because a lot of it's kind of branding, a lot of it's kind of, like you said, being there, being represented, being there, and you don't know how many extra leads you get. You know how many leads you got on the show, but are you getting extra stuff throughout the year because you were there? Because people, you know people appreciate that permanence that you're kind of showing off or that that kind of you know that committedness, um, so you don't really know. And yeah, and there's always being expensive and and and.
Joris:For small companies, like if you're a startup or if you're, you know only, if you're even a maybe medium to large company, you have, like one marketing person. It's a it's a bit of a problem on your organization. So it's, you know, tough to go to one of these shows, because you're your whole company kind of slows, grinds to nearly a halt for that week. So it's always a difficult thing to do and it's difficult to tell, but I do think that consistency does matter. Like you know, whatever you do, even if it's a table or whatever, just go there always. You know.
Joris:And I think it is important to show your face and bring a lot of people. And what people always forget is they always try to go big on the stands right and bring a lot of people. And what people always forget is they're always trying to go big on the stands right and take relatively few people. And I think it's the other way around. I think the key thing I think you should be doing is bring as many people as you can engineers, customer care people, sales, whatever and having the smallest stand you can get away with, because that you know it's just about being there. I mean, if I'm on a really big stand, I'm going to be like, oh wow, it's so amazing. I'm going to think in the back of my head I'm paying these people too much money.
Brent:You know, that's what I'm going to think.
Joris:I'm like oh, a coffee. Oh, thank you, but okay, the machines are way too expensive. So I always think the stand has to learn about the competition, to learn about trends and stuff, and that, really that kind of approach, is to me much, much more valuable than having like, oh my God, you see their stand, it has fireworks or whatever you know. So look at this differently. But I do agree with you. It's the consistency is the key element here To be there every single time and to build up that relationship, also with the people from the show, but also with everyone who goes, and for some people it's some of the most fun times of the year. For them, it's a really time to learn and exchange and show off things. So being part of that is, I think, a very valuable thing as well. But, again, very difficult to quantify this as a marketing spend compared to AdWords or something.
Brent:Yeah, interesting. Well, I agree with you on the consistency side of things and I think it's an interesting take on bring people and I think the bottom line is people buy from people. Right, it's the people that you trust you're going to do business with, and even with a big company. If you bring those people, and those people create relationships and that sort of thing, then you're going to do business with, and even with, a big company. If you bring those people, and those people create relationships and that sort of thing, then you're going to buy from them and I, I like that. Take yours. That's, that's very nice.
Joris:Okay, cool. So tell us about this event. How big is it? Who's it for?
Brent:Okay, so the event is in Orlando, florida, and they have a very big it's the Orange County Convention Center, and I forget how many millions of square feet it can be Like this is going to be in a corner of the building and they have 165 exhibitors and counting and guess what? The Orthotics and Prosthetics podcast is going to be there and broadcasting live and all that stuff.
Brent:So we're going to have fun like we did last year. There's going to be a ton of credits available. And here's another really interesting thing that you probably would appreciate Brad was talking about. They have the technical side, which is how do you make these devices? And Niles, who we've had on before, that builds these tools and such and the safety equipment and such, they actually have like a little mini lab that they're setting up. That's going to be hands-on, so it's going to be, you know, ovens, grinders, all this stuff to show how the technical stuff will work. And of course, there's always the extra paperwork and the extra safety and all that stuff that goes on. But I think it's super important to have things like this, to bring in not only the clinicians in, not only the clinicians but the technical side, because the technical side is what is changing right now for the orthotic prosthetic. So to have education around that and be able to serve that, I think, is very neat.
Joris:Okay, that's a yeah, that's a super encouraging. And apart from the whole, is there also a lot of? Is there a big focus on the academic part of things? Is it a big part or is it kind of like a side gig kind of thing?
Brent:No, it is a big part on the academic. They're doing the Pedorthic and Technical Lab. They also have and I think we've talked about it before the Digital Showcase. So anybody that's involved with digital anything. There is like a case study, say a brace and a prosthesis, and all the companies address how they would tackle that specific case and then you're able to talk to the people, the vendors there, on what their workflow looks like to address the needs of that particular case. So that's pretty interesting.
Joris:Okay, and then if I would go like this is clearly orthotics prosthetics vendors, right.
Brent:Yep.
Joris:Anyone Like, is it valuable for the technician, the owner, everyone in the business?
Brent:Yeah. So I would say so. They're going to have a technical track, they're going to have a clinical track. They also have a business education track and then the pedorthic side, which is kind of up to the ankle, so feet, foot orthoses, that sort of thing. I think that is yeah, and we always talk about insurance and all that.
Brent:They're going to be having what they call an ALJ mock trial, which means that this is the final stage. Say, you had a prosthesis and it got denied, and it kept on getting denied and you have appealed, appealed, appealed, have appealed, appealed, appealed. Finally you get in front of a judge to plead your case. Um, so you can finally get paid for the device that you provided for a lot of times a year or more prior, and the fact that they're giving this mock trial, so you get a actual case. It's very interesting. So I think there's a lot there. There's the big where everybody gets together, that big assembly.
Brent:I think there's going to be some very special times, some special speakers. It's going to be amazing, and the amount of credits available in person is like 34. And then the amount which is the max that you could get if you were to go to every single thing that you could get to, but then online afterwards it's probably going to be 100 plus hours of programming that are included in that. And I don't know if you knew this, but every five years we have to have 75 hours per. So if you're an orthotist, you need to have 75 hours, if you're a prosthetist you need to have 75 hours, or if you're both, you need to have 125 hours every five years. I think that's correct. It might be so I forget.
Joris:Anyway, it's important, so going to two of these shows will cut it yeah, 100%.
Brent:Yeah. It's important to these shows. I'll cut it, yeah, a hundred percent, yeah, so that you, you, you're going to see a lot of people there that are yeah, so uh, and I don't know I'm going to check in and go to the theme park.
Brent:There you go. Well, and I think that's one of the interesting things about doing it, orlando is um. You can take your family and go vacation afterwards or whatever. Go see the Mickey Mouse or the Universal Studios. My wife and I went to the Chocolate Museum in Orlando. That was pretty cool and it should be a more or less hot time of year, so that's a good time of year to be in Florida.
Joris:And it's 3 to 6 September right.
Brent:Yes.
Joris:Would you recommend people go like you know? Do you come the day before, do you go one day? What would you recommend for most people?
Brent:um, so a lot of people. If you're just going, you probably get in, uh, the third, that, and hit the afternoon stuff and then go hard thursday, friday, sat and then head out Saturday evening. If you're wanting to do some networking and what have you? Exhibitors start setting up on Tuesday. So Tuesday and Wednesday morning and then they'll be breaking down later. I think it's Saturday. So if you're with your family or what, have you probably catching it before or after. It's really an interesting time because a lot of kids are going back to school, so it's probably not great timing, unless you catch it, you know, just for the weekend or something for that.
Joris:So yeah, okay. And then, yeah, is there a lot of like social stuff around. This is like there's I've noticed this in different industries. Some industries, they basically it's kind of like, uh, this is very unhealthy, how are these people doing this? And other industries is kind of like, basically, after the show, everybody's going home and you have maybe dinner with someone, then you're gone. Uh, is it like a big kind of social thing or is that kind of not as big a deal as some other places, maybe?
Brent:So it's not like a mug social, but it was thinking about yeah, so you will have.
Brent:there's probably one of the nights and this one will probably be Friday night where there's a lot of people that will stay up late and it's chatting and it's really fun networking, and you talk to a bunch of people, a lot of ideas, there's a lot of things that kind of go on for lack of better terms in the shadows. Right Somebody's in the corner, so it's always interesting to see who's talking to who and you may have a sense, or you may not, of what potentially is going on the this. This might be the first year that I actually take a sport coat with me. Whether or not I wear it, um, who knows?
Brent:but I'm yeah, I am moderating, so I'm I'm pulling a yours peels, uh, on a couple things. So I've got a couple things that I'm moderating which will, which should be fun, and so they've asked us to be a little bit more um this is a.
Joris:This is something I recommend to anyone like. If you, you know, I think you kind of have to be kind of extroverted or at to be a little bit more. Um, this is. This is something I recommend to anyone like if you, you know, I think you kind of have to be kind of extroverted or at least be a kind of person that could turn that on. Uh, you know, you don't have to be the most extroverted person in the world, but if you are kind of and if you're into public speaking, you can do that and you're confident.
Joris:I think that's the most important thing. It opens up a lot of opportunities to go into this moderating or be on panels and stuff like that, and especially if you do it well, like as in, not you're like oh yeah, I'm brent, I'm amazing. Just promote yourself. But if you really are there to further the debate and make that discussion really good, you kind of get in that circuit and that's a really good place to be, I think. I think you keep getting invited to stuff, um and uh, you keep getting free entrance and stuff and all this uh and also just a wonder for your own profile, and even I found that the kind of the least, the the the more useful you are and the least you promote your own business, um, the more you know that's appreciated and you really end up getting a lot of opportunities to to to network with people and stuff, and I think it's a really, if you're able to get in that thing, then it's a really, really valuable thing to be involved in.
Brent:Yeah, yeah, and I know like on the on for this there's a lot of volunteer students and things of that nature and you know your access to speakers and that sort of thing that you, especially if you're volunteering and they're speaking and you have the opportunity to help get them ready and make sure their slides and all that stuff, that's a pretty big opportunity to you have with specific people that you may look up to or network with and that sort of thing. So I would concur, and there's always need for helpers, for sure.
Joris:Yeah, totally, and if you just look at the cost it adds up really, really quickly. Usually the tickets are very expensive and then sometimes for a couple of hours you can just volunteer, you know, hold a coke rack or something or whatever, uh, and then uh, just do your thing, you know yeah, yeah so I'd love to go through um, some of these, these vendors too, that I'm kind of excited to see um, and we may just call some of them the friends of the show too, because they came on.
Brent:So I'm just in the A's and I'll quickly go through some of these. Aether Biomedical. We had Drew come in and share about his hand and how the stuff was able to be repaired in the field Very cool. Alps has always been very generous to the orthotic and prosthetic community. They're one of the first companies ever to produce a massive production of gel liners, which has changed the course of history for amputees and comfort. So they're always really great. We had a great conversation and his name is escaping me right now last year with one of the guys from Alps and it was really neat. Alt Bionics, I don't know. When you talked to Janet on the 3D pod, she might have mentioned that they work with Endeavor doing some of that.
Brent:So yeah that's um, pretty interesting. Uh, I'm just looking through here. That's the, that's the a's becker is always interesting. Um, they, they hang out more in the orthotic space, but I know that they're working on some composite stuff. That's very interesting. So what's, what's great about the composite side of things is being able to get stuff into shoes. So a lot of times these devices are big, thick, bulky, that sort of thing and you have to go up a size in shoes or what have you. They're figuring out some ways where you can do that a little bit smaller, and I think that's in thinner, lightweight, stronger, all that stuff. So it's pretty neat. You skipped one that I'm. That's in thinner, lightweight, stronger, all that stuff.
Joris:So it's pretty neat you skipped one that I'm really interested in and I don't know if they're any good, but I like them. It's Basinglead or Basinglead, I don't know. Chinese company right. So they make a high-speed orthotic 3D printer. They call it high-speed TPU optimized printer. They also have like a scanning thing that feels very familiar and they make like tpu filament and a foot scanner kind of thing and a pressure pipe and a pressure walkway. So so all the stuff you would need to make your own orthotics practice kind of in a package you can get it all from them and they can also make, uh, the the things for you.
Joris:So this is actually really interesting, because that's why I'm interested in this one. They were I was always looking for example of like that whole kind of scenario, like you do the scan in america and then some dude does the, the orthotic, and then imports it, right, a custom device, and they actually do this. And they said they do it over a hundred thousand times. But I don't, I still don't know if they did it a hundred thousand times for chinese companies or for american ones, but that could be a very interesting thing there. But just generally, yeah, these guys are coming up with the scanning, pressure plate walking thing, infrastructure to make your own insoles, plus the materials, and that, to me, is a really ripe business, is a really interesting business and is also something that typically a Chinese company will super commoditize this kind of thing right I?
Brent:I know exactly why I skipped over that because I didn't see the english translation of those characters I'm like yeah, that's interesting.
Joris:Yeah, so if you know those guys, I'd love to uh talk to them I don't know them, I've just been following them because I thought of, I thought it was. It was always my example of like well, why doesn't somebody just come up with like a global production? You know, I put Air Treks, air Treks, those guys right, they have in a local department store here. They have like a station where there's like a person. So every time I go to like the sports part of the Corting Glasses it's like a big kind of sax kind of I don't know. Remember when we used to have the Department of Source in America, that thing, and they have Air Treks, air Treks, I don't know. They have a station and a guy and the guy's always there and there's always a person who's willing to sell you a kind of customized insole kind of thing in the store and that we know there's like six, seven startups have tried this and they all failed.
Joris:So I'm always kind of looking at this and the idea would be well, why not have a guy measuring them in Spain, for example, and then have them made in India and then somebody just flies them in. The guy comes back next week maybe, picks up a pair of running shorts or something. He's good to go. So I've always been fascinated by this as an idea and these guys could commoditize this infrastructure. So I've always I wasn't kind of following. I have no idea who they are or if they're any good right, but I've been kind of.
Brent:I'll check them out. Check it out.
Joris:Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally, totally, totally.
Brent:Cool, cool. Well, yeah, so Bulldog Tools they have some great components. Cbs, medical Billing we had Aaron on from there talking about the medical billing and the compliance side of things. Coapt, yeah, that was the one where we surprised you with I had texted Blair while we were talking live and Blair came on. That was so awesome. Com-o-n-p is the scanning thing that John Naft is a part of.
Joris:I still think that's awesome. I think that's really disruptive for everyone. I think that's really really cool.
Brent:Yeah, yeah Coyote. You're a big fan of Coyote, so they're going to be there showing off some things as well. And then Cypress Adaptive we had Matt on talking about some of the suction sockets and that sort of thing and some of the stuff that they're doing as far as really commodity type of products, but doing it with excellence. I see equal there. You always give equal a hard time with how they spell their name.
Joris:It's terrible dude. I like that guy, I like their products. It seems really, really like they're on the right path. They seem to be doing it in a very value conscious way for, for, for the end user and the participants. So I really like what they're doing. Just, I think just the name is just like I'm like really guys, like yeah, I was kind of thinking, if I see it, I'm like what were the other options that you didn't? You didn't take're? Like no, no, let's not do that. You know what I mean. It's like I don't know. Yeah, so I'm always going to be critical of the name, yeah.
Brent:Yeah, so. And then Ethnocare. They do something very interesting where they're using air bladders and such to help with sizing, so as your leg changes shape you can pump it up, like the old Reebok commercial, I guess. Which is interesting, the Fabco prosthetic designs. They're amazing, traditionally fabricated. A company, phil Hour, got bought by Hanger, so that one Fiora and Gens. They got bought by Oser, I believe, and we talked to Linda a while back, right before she started with them. Let's see Anything else. Grace, prosthetic fabrication, you talk about a company that's been around for a long time. It's this one. They hit all the shows. Very cool High tech's doing something.
Joris:We should talk to them. Dude, I don't know if you know anybody there.
Brent:I do yeah, oh, he would love to talk yeah.
Joris:So we should do that because I'm interested like a fabrication business like that. So okay, it says here I'm looking at the same thing as in simultaneously 150 years. That's crazy. By the way, there's not a lot of companies, uh, that are around that long. You know, um, and you know what are they? How do they look at this landscape? Are they going to keep innovating? Are they like saying, hey, hey, we're the best at craft, so forget 3D printing, you know? Are they intimidated by this whole hanger-oser kind of thing going on their turf, or do they really think that, you know, being the independent will ultimately kind of make even more sense, right, if you're not trying to sell them all sorts of other stuff or trying to compete with them as well at the same time? So I'd love to talk to them. I think that's really, that'd be really cool.
Brent:I really really very cool 150 years, that is super cool. So then you've got the hangar high-tech. High-tech is a fabrication facility as well. They're doing some interesting stuff with FDM, also some gel stuff, hp, obviously. Now we're already to the H's. Hold on a second. Ah, I think I found my first one. Guess who's not going.
Joris:I don't know, dude.
Brent:I'm learning as fast as I can Well you actually do know what is a big company, multi-billion dollar company that starts with an F and ends with an orm labs oh my god, they're not there they're not there wow, that's not good. So they were there, okay, okay maybe two years, and now they're out. That's interesting.
Joris:Wow, that is, that's. That's it? Yeah, it might be. It might be that they're just looking at it cold hard kind of way. They're a relatively small team. They're doing oh, they're doing like, let's say, $200-300 million in revenue a year, right. So compared to a lot of other players there, they're doing okay.
Brent:And they're turning a profit right, Supposedly.
Joris:Yeah, they should be profitable as well. I think it just is like the rumor has all. We've been talking already for two, three years about form labs going public and maybe going public creality is going public, by the way, and those are the two biggest things that could happen to our industry as an additive manufacturing. So if I'm them, maybe you know I'm saving on some marketing dollars. I spend in the vertical and I want to make a big bang in a roadshow or in investment investors and stuff like that. Maybe that's it.
Brent:Okay.
Joris:And that makes a lot more sense now that we know that Creality is going public, we can talk about that separately and that's a big deal for us. If that goes badly, we should all go do something else. But anyway, yeah, that's interesting. Is it always been a natural fit we talked about a long time ago I remember like like four years ago we were talking about using form labs or sla parts for, as an inventor and a maker of products, yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense if you want to cast stuff or do lost wax casting and stuff like this. Make really, but it's brittle, right, so it's brittle. So the catastrophically fails. I'd much rather have a thermoplastic fail on me and kind of default, gently, you know, or to feel my leg kind of collapse underneath me would be a better option than oops and whack. You know I'm on the floor, so it's never been a natural kind of you know place like filament. Innovations should always be there, always. You know what I mean.
Joris:Oh, uh companies like that, yeah, they got.
Brent:They got bought, so they're in the f's, so I bet they're under a different one.
Joris:Though, when we get out okay, okay, okay, so yeah, but that's like a natural marriage kind of. And then formers are so much else for them to sell into and that specialized uh, printer, uh, you know they have specialized dental printers and dental resins They've spent years developing Some of them are only cleared. It's very difficult to make a resin that gets cleared for use by the FDA in the mouth, especially for longer terms, for obvious reasons. Very bad material sometimes, and so when they do it it's a very big deal. So I think for them it's also kind of like they can go to different industries. Oh, maybe there's a big dental show, there's this one giant dental show they do over two years. Maybe that means that a bunch of people have to go to Germany. It's that kind of a thing.
Joris:Right, there's more stuff going on than if there were a medium format FDM material extrusion vendor for them. And also, I don't think it's as happy a marriage as HP or the there should be. I'm a little kind of a little bit upset. There's like so few FDM or material extrusion companies here. You know, I think that's a natural marriage that people should be working on much more so than just having the Formlabs guys there, which I think yeah for them, given the fact that, well, everybody's thinking they're going public in one to two years, but we've been saying that for four years. So I don't know.
Brent:And then you know, with that and the different verticals, you know, if they're releasing new dental resin, of course they're going to put all their money in dental this year, you know what I mean so I think it's more, it's not word is, if you're not going to be or support this sort of thing, you shouldn't also advertise towards the amputee community right as a solution, in my opinion, I think that's an interesting thing.
Joris:I mean, they do a lot of content around prosthetics and orthotics and to not be there to support it is, I think, an interesting move yeah, I think, I think like yeah, kind of freeloading, you kind of have to pay your tax to to get people to do stuff and all that yeah yeah, yeah, yeah no so, um, yeah, so so we got hp.
Brent:we talked about them. Uh, I think they're going to have a whole crew uh there, which should be fun, and it'll be interesting to see some of their stuff. Ibt is interesting. They do a lot of stuff for upper extremity prosthetic stuff they do, and I don't know exactly. I need to actually stop by their booth and find out. Icarus Medical we had Dave on and I actually just recently fit one of the 3D printed braces on a very active baseball player that was recovering from an injury. Cool Did really well. He loved it. Integrum was the bone anchor prosthetic stuff, which was very cool, and then Invent I think that was really exciting.
Brent:Yeah, and then Invent Medical has been around for a long time creating beautiful prosthetic and orthotic devices Very cool. In the case Kiss Technology, they've been around for a long time. Very simple I mean, that's what that stands for. Keep it simple, stupid technologies. Very cool. We've also I think we had Scott on If we haven't, we need to from Launchpad. He does a lot of cool things for kids. Let's see Limber. We had them on and that was.
Brent:That was actually very excellent, because I completely changed my mind on, uh, whether, whether it was a good solution and so that was the beauty of of this right if you go in with an open mind and you actually ask questions and and, and they answer them and and you realize like, hey, very cool, very thoughtful. I think it's an interesting company and this is the first time that they're exhibiting, which is really cool. Let's see Going through here. Oh, we have the Myomo on, which is the brace for mostly stroke patients but could be brachial plexus injuries as well. So very cool there. The other thing you were talking about, fdm Mosaic Manufacturing, is there, so I bet they're going to have their solution there.
Joris:That's a Canadian company that has a cabinet that automatically removes print volumes and stores them essentially so you could run printers all the time. They do this in combination with their own printers and they got a whole bunch of money, or like tens of millions of money, to invest in this and I'm wondering where they're going. I think it's interesting and I'm wondering where they're going. I think it's it's interesting, but to me it makes more sense for them to just put the bamboo printer in there and then you know work on the conveyance and the scanning and stuff to check everything. Uh, to me that almost makes more sense than them also trying to develop a printer.
Joris:Yeah, Uh it's kind of like a tire company trying to also make the car to to, to make it better. You know it's like, yes, it kind of makes sense, but at the same time, why would you do all that extra work, uh, to sell that thing?
Joris:yeah but we'll see and and I'm really excited about that. Actually I think the build lines could be a bit on the lacking side of that for that solution, but I do think it is a there's not a lot of people working on solving that whole conveyancing. I want to leave for a week and come back with 100 prints kind of problem and I'd love to see them solve it.
Brent:Yeah, yeah, new tech. We had new tech on, and they're the ones that bring in other companies from outside the United States and help them figure out how their technology can fit in to the US market. So pretty interesting. Nimble is an electronic medical record software. So is OPI. And look who's? Open Bionics is going to be there. So this is the first time I've recognized. It doesn't say that they're the first time exhibitor, but I think it's good for Open Bionics to be there. They've been kind of separate from the orthotic and prosthetic community, even though they're trying to serve our community. But they're also opening up their own private upper extremity places. So it's an interesting thing.
Brent:So I'm going to try to go by and see them totally I think that they're using 3d printing in the way that it should be being used. I think now it's how do we, how do you know you, you monetize um there I've seen about yeah, I've seen about 20 new first-time exhibitor.
Joris:little markings in those lists, by the way, so that's kind of a lot.
Brent:Yeah, yeah.
Joris:Is that normal? Is that more?
Brent:interesting. It's unusual. So, from what I understand, this is the most that they've ever had sign up to be an exhibitor, so it's going to be a rocking thing there. There's the pediatric. There are O&P specialty bracing. I think that's pretty interesting. Oser and Autobach are both there, which you would expect that, but I forget which one it is. One of them does not exhibit or has not exhibited at the academy meeting, uh, kind of trying to get the solidarity of hey, we all need to have one big meeting. So I I think that's neat and I forget which one it was, uh, whether it was autobacros and who doesn't like the biggest stand?
Joris:is it these guys? Is it one of these two or?
Brent:uh, uh. So I'd say both of them have. The biggest stand actually is typically Alps. They just do a really nice job. Yeah, they go all out. Super, super cool Point Designs are going to be there, and that's after their acquisition by Hanger, so that should be cool. And then it looks like Proteor is listed twice and I'm guessing one of those is going to be Proteor Print, which is what Filament Innovations has become. So that's interesting. And then we've had Scionic on.
Joris:That's the one that kind of blew you away when you held your hand up to the screen and then you made the hand move that was crazy.
Brent:Quadra is the electron, uh the digital side. But um, I don't know if you knew this, but uh, you know rude relo from uh color fab and then he also like ages yeah yeah, well, so we had him on and we didn't even know that this was going on in the background. But he, he spun his company podo printer off to these guys so they got.
Joris:So it's sold to them, or what?
Brent:or wait, I don't know that uh, quadra equal, equal okay, okay, yeah so the podo, not color fab, but the podo printer side, the sole I think, it's the sole printer, or something like that yeah, nothing yeah that's still it's, it's.
Joris:It's for people who don't know, it's just like okay. So one of the things that people in in fdm material extrusion has always talked about is conveyor belt printing. So either you make the head move over the print volume, right, you kind of basically print for infinitely, or you have kind of a conveyor belt underneath the, the print head, and and then you also build infinitely, or you can move both the, the conveyor belt and the printhead on a kind of gantry and then, wow, you have a lot of freedom there. And the coolest thing about this is, of course, that instead of being stuck in this box, you print and then at the end of the print, when the conveyor belt is done printing this part, it just falls into like a bucket, right, and then you keep going right. So it's absolutely the. It's the most logical idea in the world.
Joris:A bunch of people Black Belt was the company that I think the Rude and the guys from ColorFab kind of I don't know if they invested it kind of stimulated it worked with it. I'm not sure how that worked. They did it. There's a PODO printer which is a kind of another kind of version of that, and all these kind of variable printers have gone nowhere. Even though everyone isn't sure this is, this is the way to do it, right? You know, if you want to make a million prosthetics or something, or a million kind of insoles or something, this is just going to be the cheapest way to do it yeah.
Brent:So I, I, I love, I love that um, and I think it's interesting that they are investing so heavily on the fdm side of things. I think that just goes to show that there's a lot of opportunity there in the prosthetic and orthotic side of things. So you see Radii there with some of their stuff on creating the shapes automatically for the prosthesis. We had Josh on RevoPoint. How cool is that that they're going to be there for scanning. That'll be their first time scanning, showing a very low-cost solution on board for their scanning side of things. Now we had this guy on. He must have been a part of another booth or maybe it was at the Academy or something. But Rocky Tech, he's the one that had some of the interesting cooling liners and cooling stuff Not the same as what Brian Castello a different technology, not water type of thing, or heating elements is a very interesting kind of thing.
Brent:Shining 3D is one of those companies that's been there around for a while now. They've been a kind of a staple, which is great. You know they're H2D and I think they've got their other, einstar, which is their lower cost. But then they are also releasing, or they've already released, the one that everything that's on board and then grant michael from worth industries scanned with their blue laser thing, little handheld I forget what the official name of that one is. He scanned a socket for me and it's unbelievable how good of socket uh scan they got. So that was really neat. Um spinal tech you know they got bought by um equal. They're going to be there. Uh, let's see who else structure you know we love structure. It's pretty neat to see them there. Sure, step got also bought by hangeranger. They're going to have their stuff and they also have a helmet that they'll be showing more. That seems to be going pretty well in a 3D printed realm of things.
Brent:And Tilgis I don't think we've had any of those guys on yet, but they do a lot of stuff in composite. But then they run a couple uh at least a couple 5200s with um tpu. They're really good at doing that um. So we had sydney on from vessel prosthetics, the adjustable socket. So that that's going to be interesting. That's going to be the first time that they're actually showing their device. Uh, willowood has been around for a long time and then I'm not sure what the so that's the last one. And then there's X, but then it's called IdeaStep. Oh, it's XamonConTechnology. Don't know what that is. But that kind of rounds up the list of things. So we didn't touch on all 165, but it was sure a bunch of them.
Joris:So we we didn't touch on all 165, but it was sure a bunch of A couple of things you forgot. Materialize. Materializes there on. That's really good, I think that's good they're. They're the high end software kind of vendor. They have end to end solutions. If you were like a really big company, also bulk, wanted to have auto auto bulk, also bulk, also bulk, also book also box is the name marriage right, also book hanger, uh, but anyway, if you would want to have a custom workflow, they could make your custom workflow, especially for metal components and stuff like that. So that's cool, they're there.
Brent:it doesn't look like it's their first, which I've never, so, yeah, I'll have to.
Joris:I'll have to see why they're there, yeah that would be really interesting because usually they have like really high-end. So the software costs like 20 000 dollars a seat or something and if you a metal printer, no problem, right. Or if you do a lot of polymer, uh parts and mj for something, then also no problem. Yeah, for a lot of uh omp people it's overkill, but maybe for the, the central fabs and stuff, so that's cool. I think that's cool. And also I just checked uh, you can just by searching 3d print and look at the tags, you can assign a tag to your like, um, uh, your listing of your, of your company. Just on 3d printing, additive manufacturing, 3d print, there's like 33 companies that have mentioned 3d printing uh in their thing of that total. So that's actually kind of uh, kind of crazy that that, that, that, that that so many are such a high proportion uh of these companies would would be interested in showcasing some of their 3D printing ability in this industry. So I think that's really cool.
Brent:Well, look at you using the search function.
Joris:Yeah, I have to do something, dude, I'm just sitting there listening to you like what, who, what? No, most are really terrible at names, so it's always like which guy? And then I'm always like halfway through the sentence oh yeah, with the hand.
Brent:You know, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, that's an interesting yeah, that's like.
Joris:You know, one let's say one fourth or one fifth of the group of companies would would even actively go through and say oh, we want to show off our 3d printing thing, we want to mention it in the search thing. So that's actually really good and and there'll be more right that just have products and they just don't feel like it's important enough to mention right.
Brent:Yeah. So I'm trying to think through some people that aren't there, that I'm surprised. I mean Formlabs is the big one that stuck out to me.
Joris:You mentioned Film.
Brent:Innovations, but it's under Proteor. Now I'm trying to think through any of the software companies too, like I'm actually really surprised. Materialize there, yeah, I can't think of anything else. I mean to me, yeah, that's the big surprise to me was Formlabs not being there. And I get it. I mean, we're a small fish in a big pond, for sure, but we're also. So.
Brent:This was an interesting thing when I was talking to some of the material engineers for some different materials, for powder bed specifically, and I had sent them some videos of not only people walking but, uh, some of the stuff that we do for animals, and so I sent these to the material designers and, um, our material engineers, and he's like, brent, you know what's cool about that is, this was the first time my mom and my grandma understand what I do, like. They're like oh, so your stuff can make stuff to help people walk or help animals walk. And he's like, yeah, and they're like, oh, okay, I get it. That comes along with a lot of these 3D solutions that can convey what is possible with additive manufacturing, and I think that's really neat.
Joris:Yeah, totally. I think there's a lot of embedded intelligence in just having an object and there's also a lot of worth in showing it off and having actually a physical thing that embodies some kind of intelligence, some kind of functionality. I think that's also what we're doing. That's why the overlap with OMPs are great, right, you have a problem, a thing-sized problem, in OMP, and then we can make lots of different shapes to fulfill problems without it. So I think that's where the happy marriage between those industries kind of occurs, right.
Joris:So we should start planning for next year on getting you here in september but okay, wait, are you gonna sit there again and just random people walk up and I'm supposed to?
Brent:well, no, I'll pretend, oh my god, no, no, no, so well, probably so, but however, uh, we, I will probably also um try to get like a lineup of what we had. But I mean, how long did we go for last time? Like three hours, I mean it was.
Joris:it was. It was if you didn't maybe like the people haven't watched the episode or something. I had thought it was all like planned or something, but it was just like I thought it was a normal episode. So I just come there and then I see I, brent on video sitting at a show. I'm like what? And then what would happen is some big, some dude would just come up and like wave hi to Brent, and then some of them would be like hey, and other ones would be like come, sit down. And then all of a sudden it's like this is Jane from. Let me talk for half an hour about something I don't understand. And then it was like this endless line of people. Some of them appeared to be in some kind for an appointment and other people just had no idea what they were in for. So it was super chaotic, also for me as well, but I think it was great. Anything like that would be, I think, very funny. I don't know how people like it, but I thought it was hilarious.
Brent:We were live that whole time right you were able to watch it back, but we were actually live, so that was just kind of funny as well.
Joris:Okay, okay, something like that. Then I'll kind of mentally prepare myself for another another one okay so that's cool. Um and uh, yeah, feel free to drop by brent as well if you're there, of course. Um, at the big show and it's three to six september and yeah, I think it's really good looking forward to the show and I think I think it's a good amount of additive stuff there, some innovative out of stuff, lots of new exhibitors. I think it'll be really, really cool I agree.
Brent:Look forward to seeing everybody okay, awesomeness.
Joris:Thank you so much for listening to another uh episode of the prosthetics and orthotics podcast. Have a great day.
