If the Shoe Fits
Imagine a world where everyone is healthy and active…
The team at Foot Science International have been striving to make this a reality for over 35 years.
35 years ago, a chance meeting between a professional skier, aiming for performance, and a doctor looking to reduce his patients’ lower limb pain, lead to the development of a remarkable product – Formthotics™, a heat-mouldable custom foot orthotic.
Formthotics™ are prefabricated custom foot orthoses, designed to replace a standard shoe insole, to help those suffering from lower limb pain while providing greater comfort, performance and protection from your footwear.
We have been designing and manufacturing Formthotics for over 35 years. Today they are used around the world in a range of environments from top sports people through to hospitals, doctor’s practices, physiotherapy and podiatry clinics.
Formthotics must stand up to the harsh environment experienced by a shoe insole, while also meeting the hygiene and quality standards expected from a medical product.
To achieve this, Formthotics are made from unique foams, with a ‘closed cell’ structure and an embedded anti-microbial treatment – all of this makes them extremely difficult to print on.”
Saito Labels has extensive experience dealing with many of the most common types of medical and laboratory labelling applications, including the associated challenges of chemicals, cryogenic storage and patient safety. However, the unique challenges of printing on Formthotics required something a little more unique.
The problem Foot Science faced, were the issues coinciding with ink drying speed and inability to diversify labels. Different methods had been trialed but proved to be unsuccessful. Foot Science reverted to manual pad printing which is not as efficient.
Saito proposed a customised solution which saw a NEO 70 UV inkjet marking and coding system fitted to a machine Foot Science International had previously built. A pair of Formthotics™ are passed under the NEO print head to be printed with specific product details, including sizing. Ink is cured immediately after passing under a UV Lamp.
The new printer capability allows for label diversity, which is an asset for future product research and development.
The drying speed allows production timing to become very efficient, with more Formthotics™ being printed every hour and less smudged when packed.
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About Saito
Saito started out in our founding directors’ basement in May 1985, and in June 1991 Saito opened its Queensland office. Today Saito remains a private family run business in the second generation of leadership. Saito has an awesome reputation in the marketplace which has been derived from the customer-centric culture instilled by our founding director and delivered by all team members, even via our casual staff. Everything we do is aimed at exceeding our customers’ expectations. Award-winning customer service is one attribute but Saito are continually innovating to find ways to deliver products more competitively and take operational expenses out of our customers’ business. We ourselves are manufacturers and understand that price is a key factor in any trading relationship along with confidence in quality and dependency on deliverables. Saito continue to grow and we are immensely proud that a great majority of both our customers and staff have been with us for over twenty years and remain very loyal. As we do to them!