Mecuris Improves Orthopedic Care with SOLIDWORKS and Additive Manufacturing

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The rise of additive manufacturing has expanded the opportunities for new technologies that are customizable and cost effective.  No one has seen the advantages of this growing industry more clearly than Mecuris, which strives every day to break the paradigm of expensive orthopedic prosthetics or orthotics by utilizing 3D printing and SOLIDWORKS.  Let’s take a look at its story.

Mecuris is an innovative German company that was founded on the mission to provide orthopedists and wearers of orthopedic prosthetics or orthotics with greater flexibility and more options through the power of automated design, digital tailoring, and 3D printing.  Until recently, patients requiring orthopedic prosthetics or orthotics had limited options in terms of sizing, style, and customization – all of which comes at high costs.  Mecuris sought to change all of that.

By digitizing fitting processes, automating design, and utilizing 3D printing, Mecuris is revolutionizing orthopedic technology, providing modern, customizable, and attractive prostheses and orthoses that are CE- and ISO-certified.  Because of design automation and the affordability of 3D printing, the costs associated with these patient-specific prostheses are no higher than those incurred through standard, conventional care.

While Mecuris was starting, it took advantage of the SOLIDWORKS for Entrepreneurs program, which provided the company with licenses to help get it off of the ground.  “I had used SOLIDWORKS design software while working on my master’s thesis [at the University of Design at Schwaebisch Gmuend] on 3D-printed prosthetics and was pleased to be able to use SOLIDWORKS at Mecuris,” says Jannis Breuninger, Head of Product Development. “The SOLIDWORKS for Entrepreneurs licenses helped a lot because they enabled us to take the early work that I had done and accelerate R&D. We’ve since standardized on SOLIDWORKS Premium software to drive design and visualization of our expanding product line.”

Mercuris’ approach relies on the parametric nature of SOLIDWORKS design software and the power of its design configurations. By identifying the key parameters that drive prosthetic design, such as foot/limb dimensions, customer weight, and individualized loading conditions, Mecuris has established design tables that encompass all possible combinations of parameters.  It also takes advantage of the SOLIDWORKS Visualize rendering solution to expand its product line into 3D-printed cosmetic covers for prosthetics.

To learn more about Mecuris and how it has used SOLIDWORKS Premium to create its 3D-printing-based orthopedic products business, Click Here.

Josie Morales

Josie Morales

Josie connects with SOLIDWORKS users every day to help them share their cool and ground breaking design stories. When not speaking to users, she's binge watching everything.