Langer, Rx, talar made custom- now one

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I should be interested to hear the views of customers regarding their perception of the quality of product and service following the merger of the three main UK orthotics labs. Has quality and service gone up, stayed the same or dropped?

 

I often use Langer and have always been delighted with the service and the quality of the products. Certainly not noticed any deterioration of the quality/service since the merger.

 

No change in Langer as far as I have experienced. If anything some of Langers direct milled stuff has improved as a result of being linked to TM custom. How it has affected the other 2 I don't know. I have used more Rx and TMCustom because I can send to the same lab - is that a bit lazy?

Robin

 

I don't think it lazy, a lab which can offer a greater variety in the type of devices they can produce has got to be better than one which is more limited- right? The question is, are direct milled devices any better or worse than vacuum formed? Personally, I think as the design of foot orthoses moves out of the 20th century and someone grasps the idea that we are now in the 21st century and orthoses only looked that way before because of the manufacturing limitations the likes of Mert Root were faced with, we'll start designing orthoses that can't be produced by vacuum forming.

For example, imagine the rearfoot post in the image was hollow like a Mizuno wave plate, you could 3D print this or mill it using a 4 axis miller, but you'd struggle to vacuum form it.

 

One interesting concept is variable thickness shells. You could make the medial or lateral side thicker (stiffer) by design or Rx preference.

 

Of course, I just found this quicker to sketch. I've actually done differential shell thickness /stiffening via vac forming and then gluing/ welding on my thickened track and grinding back, a lot easier to mill it or print it though. Works kind of like the pin-track idea but with the pins on the underside so you can pull the COP.

 

The businesses have been merged since the beginning of January, improvement in Langer direct milled I am told is because all direct milled are now produced through the TM system. Its a pity they didnt quality controll the recent newsletter, I spotted numerous typos on the Chairman's page including signing himself CHAIRMEN. It didnt exactly shout quality and professionalism, lets hope the manufacturing is in a better state.