An attractive, usable and comfortable solution to the orthodontic plaster casting process, reducing treatment time by half.

Replace the uncomfortable, sometimes inaccurate plaster casting with a more accurate, less messy digital process.

Stratos redesigned and redeveloped the OraMetrix concept for the SureSmile OraScanner™ into an orthodontic breakthrough—an attractive, light and usable solution to the plaster casting process.

Mechanical Engineering

Housed the primary light source in the tabletop unit rather than in the wand, a significant mechanical engineering feat.

Reduced the size and weight of the handheld wand and permitted the use of more powerful lamps for improved signal-to-noise ratio.

Reduced safety issues and eliminated uncomfortable heating for the patients by removing the high voltage power supply from the wand.

Electrical Engineering

Kept electrical functionality very economical so that the hand-tool could stay slim and light.

Bonded a positive temperature coefficient ceramic to the back of the mirror and used it to heat the mirror to a constant temperature without additional control circuitry to keep the mirror from fogging, a hazard that thwarted successful imaging.

Added double-sided surface mount PCBs for video drive and communication circuitry.

Industrial Design

Transformed the wand into a precision hand-tool without compromising functionality.

Conducted an in-depth study of both the plaster casting and proposed digital process and quickly realized that the hand-tool needed to be significantly leaner and lighter. The key was research –knowing exactly what the user needed and exactly where the current design fell short.

Reworked the shape and moved components from the hand-tool to the base unit. Trimmed the tool down so that it was not only comfortable in the hand, but could also be precisely manipulated to scan the teeth.

Ensured a simple, elegant and compact form factor, so that orthodontists wouldn’t feel they were adding a piece of clunky machinery to their already-limited spaces.

Project Management

Coordinated design activities among Stratos’ designers and engineers in Seattle, client’s optical and electrical engineers in Germany and the client’s corporate headquarters in Texas to ensure that project goals and requirements were met.

Generated and maintained detailed project plans including work breakdown structures, schedules, issues lists, project costs and risk reduction documents.

Optical Engineering

Moved the primary light source to the tabletop unit by proposing and validating alternative methods for lighting using fiber-optic light transfer. Used a multi-strand fiber-optic cable to transport the light up to the handheld device.

Reduced the triangulation angle of the image source and the detector path, which further reduced the size of the wand and improved the imaging performance in the narrow canals of the teeth.