Imre with new midsole 3D printed using Carbon technology.
A young boy recently took his first steps in a pair of new custom orthotics thanks to a collaboration with 3D printing experts at Dinsmore Inc.
Earlier this month, the California-based additive manufacturing service provider presented Imre Patterson, who was born with a femoral discrepancy causing one leg to be shorter than the other, with a pair of custom shoes featuring the same 3D printed midsole technology behind Adidas 4D Futurecraft shoes.
Imre’s family began working with Dinsmore last year to create an alternative to Imre’s traditionally manufactured foam boot in an effort to improve his quality of life and keep up with the growing boy's active lifestyle. Initially, the team leveraged HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology to produce a nylon PA12-based lattice that was lighter and more durable than the original foam orthotic, and could be bonded to the bottom of Imre's shoe. More recently, however, they started working on a second pair that would feature a 3D printed midsole which sits between the shoe and the sole.
The team turned to Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis technology to create a durable, lightweight and responsive midsole using elastomeric polyurethane-based material. Deckers Brands provided Imre with several pairs of shoes that were scanned by SEMA Garage using a Faro Edge blue laser arm to deliver an exact fit for the printed midsole to match the specific shoe.
These second generation shoes have been dubbed “Imre 2.0” by the Dinsmore team and are completely scalable. According to Jason Lopes, Production Development Engineer at Carbon who assisted with the design of the lattice structure, “as he grows bigger, we can put a scale model on it.”
In addition to creating one-off, custom parts, the project spotlights another key benefit of 3D printing, which gives engineers the ability to design upon previous data and adapt it for future applications.
Jay Dinsmore, founder and CEO of Dinsmore Inc., added: “As Imre grows, we can take the baseline of what we’ve already done, modify that lattice structure, and create another midsole.”
