Overview
AliMed is a leading manufacturer and distributor of medical and ergonomic solutions, supplying healthcare providers with over 20,000 products from more than 100 manufacturers. In addition to third-party offerings, AliMed designs and produces its own innovative medical products to address the evolving needs of healthcare professionals and patients worldwide.
One such innovation is the MultiBoot™ X-Cel™, an advanced ankle-support device designed to prevent foot drop and protect patients at risk of pressure injuries—a critical concern in hospitals, long-term care, and home healthcare environments.
Challenge
Developing the MultiBoot™ X-Cel™ required careful attention to both engineering and production demands. The device needed to deliver reliable structural support while maintaining patient comfort, calling for materials with specific mechanical properties and high-quality surface finishes.
AliMed also faced an aggressive timeline. To meet market demand, they required a development partner capable of supporting the project from concept to production—providing rapid prototypes, facilitating design validation, and delivering production-quality parts without delays. Working with multiple suppliers would add complexity, so AliMed sought a single-source partner with expertise across prototyping and quick-turn injection molding.
Solution
AliMed partnered with Quickparts, leveraging its comprehensive suite of rapid prototyping and quick-turn injection molding services to bring the MultiBoot™ X-Cel™ to market efficiently.
Key Advantages Provided by Quickparts:
- Rapid Quoting with QuickQuote®: Using Quickparts’ online QuickQuote® platform, AliMed obtained instant pricing and lead times for multiple processes, including Stereolithography (SLA), Plastic Jet Printing (PJP), and our rapid molding services for aluminum tooling and low-volume injection molding.
- Iterative Prototyping: Quickparts produced multiple prototype versions using SLA and PJP technologies. These prototypes enabled AliMed to conduct rigorous fit, function, and usability testing, driving informed design decisions.
- Streamlined Transition to Production: With the final design approved, rapid injection molding services provided fast, cost-effective aluminum tooling for injection molding, ensuring high-quality production components.
- Collaborative Engineering Support: Through Quickparts’ design for manufacturability review, AliMed’s team worked directly with Quickparts engineers to optimize part designs, material selection, and mold configurations, ensuring production parts met stringent performance and aesthetic requirements.
Results
The collaboration between AliMed and Quickparts delivered a faster, more efficient development process. Quickparts’ integrated services allowed AliMed to move from concept to production on a condensed schedule, accelerating the product’s time to market. The iterative prototyping process gave AliMed confidence that the MultiBoot™ X-Cel™ met both clinical performance expectations and patient comfort standards.
Since its launch, the MultiBoot™ X-Cel™ has become one of the top-performing products in AliMed’s orthopedic portfolio, helping to prevent injuries and provide much-needed support to patients in hospitals, nursing homes, and homecare environments. The ability to work with a single-source partner simplified the process, reduced supply chain complexity, and ensured consistent quality from start to finish.
