Success Story

Improving Tracking,Tracing, and Quality
Assurance of Customized
Pediatric Orthotics
Cascade DAFO, Inc. introduced the first Dynamic Ankle Foot Orthosis (DAFO®) for pediatricand adult patients who lack some degree of voluntary control of their foot and/or ankle. Unlike
rigid AFO braces, the thin, flexible patented DAFO design provides freedom to move, yet
protects the foot and ankle from danger, helping patients to maintain the correct foot/ankle
position, encourage mobility, and ultimately, improve success with standing and walking skills.
Cascade DAFO takes pediatric orthotics a step further by allowing patients to choose colors,
patterns, and decorative graphic elements to personalize their device. For younger patients
especially, this is a particularly important feature. As Loretta Sheldon, COA - Director of Business
Development & Education at Cascade DAFO put it, “when you see things like the designs theychoose, that’s the kids participating in their own healthcare, which makes quite a big differencein whether they want to wear the braces or not.”With both custom and pre-fabricated DAFO designs, and literally hundreds of decorative options
for patients to choose from, product tracking and quality control at Cascade DAFO is imperative.
Originally, Cascade DAFO’s efforts to track each DAFO consisted of recording job numbers,
manufacturing dates, and patent numbers using hand-held engravers. These pneumaticallypowered engraving tools were heavy, noisy, and difficult for employees to operate for hours at atime. Any mistakes often meant starting over and these marks could sometimes be difficult to©2021 Novanta Corporation. All rights reserved.

Novanta - Improving Tracking Tracing, and Quality Assurance of Customized Pediatric Orthotics					2read, potentially leading to warranty questions or delays in reordering. Moreover, when Cascade
DAFO’s business grew to include European territories, other challenges presented themselves
such as the European Union’s requirement that the CE mark be included on each pre-fabricatedbrace sold in Europe. With this additional requirement, hand engraving tools proved to be ill-suited for the task, leaving Cascade DAFO to consider the costly alternative of reworking all of their
thermoforming molds to incorporate the CE mark.
In search of a better solution, Cascade DAFO’s manufacturing engineers contacted Synrad, aNovanta brand about the possibility of using a CO2 laser to mark the polyethylene (PE) shell.
Working closely with Cascade DAFO, Novanta Application Engineering Manager Justin Conroy
quickly determined that a 25 Watt CO2 laser coupled with an FH Flyer marking head was theperfect solution to marking the compound curved DAFO shell.

Hand markedLaser marked

The first CO2 laser marking workstation brought such a level of efficiency and consistency tothe production floor that another laser marker was soon ordered. According to Noah Wass,
R&D Engineer at Cascade DAFO, “The cost of the laser engraver was pretty much the cost of us
taking the man hours and the materials and the time to rework all of our thermal molding”. Noahcontinued, “I’m very impressed with how well the machines have held up on our production line.
That was a very big concern of ours. It’s just a very, very dusty environment, and to have noissues so far is excellent”.

Ultimately, the craftsmanship, quality, and dedication instilled by Cascade DAFO
employees are what patients experience when wearing their DAFOs. And the lasermarkers? It enables them to fill more orders each day — so more kids and adults havethe opportunity to lead healthier, happier lives.

Interested in speaking to one of ourknowledgeable representatives?
Americas & Asia PacificNovanta Headquarters
Bedford, USA
P +1-781-266-5700
Photonics@Novanta.com

Europe, Middle East,
AfricaNovanta Europe GmbH
Wackersdorf, Germany
P +49-9431-7984-0
Milan, Italy
P +39-039-793-710

ChinaJapan

Novanta Sales & Service Center Novanta Service & Sales OfficeShenzhen, China
Tokyo, Japan
P +86-755-8280-5395
P +81-3-5753-2460
Suzhou, China
P +86-512-6283-7080
Photonics.China@Novanta.com

Photonics@Novanta.com©2021 Novanta Corporation. All rights reserved.

Photonics.Japan@Novanta.
com