News

11/13/09 After two years of redesign and business development, the final prototype of the K3 Promoter is here. The previous prototype was a proof of concept of the Tensegrity design principle; this redesign has focused on durability and fatigue resistance. As a result, it has become a more elegant design, with simpler construction, less than half the part count, and is now smoother than ever. Rifkin and Niece have both walked on the new design and we are excited about the feel, but we are more excited about gathering subjective data from amputees who have walked on previous prototypes.

This week, Tensegrity Prosthetics accepted a state-of-the-art fatigue tester that complies with the industry standard ISO 11675. It accurately simulates a human step with millisecond precision, and will simulate 2 million steps (three years of use) with the K3 Promoter in under 25 days. The K3 Promoter has fared well in initial testing, and will soon begin full speed testing, with completion expected in December.

On December 7, Tensegrity Prosthetics is attending the 11th annual Battlefield Healthcare Summit as an exhibitor. The audience will be comprised of senior level professionals from military units/organizations, government agencies, contractors, technology service providers and academia. Tensegrity will publicly display the K3 Promoter for the first time here. Check back as the next few months will be full of exciting milestones for Tensegrity Prosthetics as we push the K3 Promoter to market in 2010!

8/10/09 Unit testing is complete, and subsystem testing of the toe and midfoot joints will begin this month. Full system testing and ISO certification will begin as soon as our ISO testing machine is delivered.

2/16/09 Unit testing of critical components of the K3 Promoter have been underway since December. The tests have validated several key components, and eliminated several materials under consideration. We are continuing to explore high strength metals and plastics and refining the final design based on the results from unit tests.

11/06/08 Tensegrity Prosthetics has a new new home in Louisville, CO. It took nearly three weeks to move in and set up all of our equipment, which includes a home made fume hood and commercial vacuum degasser for pouring our own urethanes! We are now beginning unit tests on components of the final design, which is still being refined.

10/15/08 Tensegrity Prosthetics applied for a Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) grant to fund a comprehensive clinical trial for the K3 Promoter. Award announcement will be between March and September 2009. If our proposal is funded Tensegrity will be looking for 100 volunteers to test the foot.

09/01/08 The National Institute of Health Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) granted Tensegrity Prosthetics $750,000 over two years. Also, Jake Niece officially began his engineering position with Tensegrity, the first full time employee of the company.