Product: Orthodontist’s chair
Client: CEFLA
Software used: CATIA V5
Project: Design and industrialization of an ergonomic orthodontist’s chair
Link: https://www.cefla.com/it/medical/
The client
Cefla Medical Equipment is Cefla’s business unit that implements design and industrial synergies in order to ensure premium product quality standards in the medical field are respected. Cefla Medical Equipment, via its network of brands, is able to provide the best solutions in each business area: dental units, radiology, sterilisation, accessories and dynamic instruments.
The software choice
The software used for this project is CATIA. We decided to use CATIA because it is the best software on the market for surfaces, and the most suitable one for the construction of special geometries. Additionally, CATIA is capable of supporting the several stages of a product’s life: creation, design (CAD), production (CAM), analysis (CAE).
The project
The customer wanted to add a high-end dentist’s chair to the catalogue, mainly ergonomic, safe and with an attractive design.
Why mainly ergonomic? A dentist spends long hours bent over patients, and this unnatural body position can cause a constant stress of the backbone, leading to various disorders.
CEFLA’s objective was an innovative chair with a functional design following the practitioners’ movements and preventing them from holding uncomfortable postures.
The challenge
CEFLA’s targets for this new orthodontist’s chair were:
- to avoid excessive bending of the vertebral column without restraining the practitioner’s freedom of movement
- to allow for its use and adjustment in a sterile environment
- to provide for a streamlined but pleasant design fit for use in a high-tech environment
The solution
Together with Nussbaumer Design, we studied the best ergonomic shape and fabricated a few prototypes with CATIA software. Among those, the customer identified the one that best suited the medical equipment line. We technologically translated the identified ergonomic needs, by conceiving a back rest featuring a tension spring that can follow the doctor’s movements but avoid incorrect postures.
In addition, the chair can be reclined and adjusted by means of a lever operated by light arm pressure; in this way, dentists can use their wrists and forearms to change position without touching anything with their hands, keeping them free and sterile.
Nussbaumer Design, by thoroughly studying the design, made sure that the chair was movable, light and with reduced overall dimensions.
Our action
We started from a careful analysis of the products existing on the reference market, then we concentrated on anatomy studies. This research was aimed at linking posture requirements with equally important usability needs in the work environment where the product was to be placed.
We took into account the tasks performed by doctors inside dental units, the types of equipment used and the movements made, so as to create chairs supporting them all day.
The use of CATIA software allowed us to simulate any possible angles of inclinations and the back rest curvature in greater detail, precisely and scientifically.
Thanks to the cooperation with Nussbaumer we were able to combine technological and ergonomic needs with a pleasant and modern design.
The result
The new CEFLA chair is innovative and comfortable, being able to follow and support every movement a practitioner makes. This chair can also prevent spinal or lumbar pains and be used for long periods in a high-tech and sterile environment. In addition, thanks to its linearity it can be considered as a furnishing object easily fitting into a modern and refined design context.