Reggie Showers always pushes himself to the limit. He’s a two-time world motorcycle drag race champ, a pilot, a rock climber, and a certified snowboard instructor. He thrives on seeing just how far his drive – and his body – can take him.
And he’s done all of this as a two-limb bilateral amputee.
Living such an active life with these limitations was nearly impossible just a few years ago. But, thanks to technological advances made by College Park Industries, sophisticated artificial prosthetics now allow people like Reggie to do things any other person can do.
How does College Park manage to create such highly innovative prosthetics? With PTC Creo, of course.
Innovation: Powered by PTC Creo
College Park’s first prosthetic, the Trustep foot, changed the way others thought about prosthetic functionality. As loyal PTC users, they’ve been able to use PTC Creo to continue this legacy of innovative design. The PTC design suite allows them to experiment with sophisticated dynamic response systems and a superior range of anatomical motion.
“PTC Creo enables us to quickly take any new concept to market,” says Mike Leydet, director of research at College Park. “We take ideas or sketches, create 3D models within days, review the industrial design aspects, tweak them, and then prototype them – all in PTC Creo.”
Creating Custom Solutions
There are a number of factors that impact a customer’s prosthetic design:
- Age
- Foot size
- Level of activity
- Impact level
The Trustep foot alone has over 400,000 viable combinations to allow the product to be custom-built for each person.
College Park designers rely on PTC Creo to design and model each prosthetic they create. “With the parametric design approach provided by PTC Creo, the team can scale the design for size, stiffness, and other parameters,” says Aaron Taszreak, engineering manager at College Park. “As the flexing force changes with each combination, we can account for all
Suite Design Applications
In addition to parametric design and simulation, PTC Creo enables College Park’s innovation in a number of other areas:
- Testing, tooling, and molding design
- Designing and manufacturing the jigs, fixtures, tools, and mold assemblies needed to manufacture the components
- Simulating and predicting stresses and strains in 3D models, shaving off months of testing physical prototypes
- Development and production of products in record time
When redesigning the company’s Soleus line, College Park wanted to reduce the product’s weight while increasing its strength. Using PTC Creo, they were able to cut weight by 10% and increase its strength by 40%. The resulting design, the Soleus Tactical, is the perfect balance of flexibility and performance.
The Heart of Innovation
While they’ve accomplished a great deal, the College Park team doesn’t measure their success by “traditional” standards. As Leydet put it, “We’re successful anytime somebody like Reggie Showers goes rock climbing or snowboarding, and we know our product helped make that possible.”
Interested in learning how to use the PTC offerings? NxRev offers a variety of seminars, tutorials, and customer service to help users get the most out of the PTC suite. Give us a call at 408-986-0200 to find out more.
For more information about College Park, visit their company website.
To learn more about Reggie Showers’ incredible story, read his profile piece on CycleDrag.