Healthcare innovation launched with help from Reading-based PTC
PTC, the Reading-based digital transformation company which has developed the Onshape CAD system, has extended its partnership with French healthcare innovator Withings.
The two firms have been working together since 2019, with Withings using PTC’s cloud-native product development platform for its latest product, U-Scan, which was launched at CES earlier this year.
U-Scan is a miniaturised health lab which sits within any toilet bowl. Withings used Onshape’s built-in Product Data Management to automatically track every design change, meaning any one of the French firm’s five designers could make a change with the rest of the team instantly seeing it.
A comprehensive edit history tracks who made what change and when, enabling the team to instantly revert to any prior design if desired.
By using Onshape, the core engineering team in France can also instantly share the design changes with their colleagues overseas, eliminating the previous communication delays that came with sending massive files back and forth by email or Dropbox.
“The truth of the design information is always there for our designers and that has saved us time and engineering costs in the development of U-Scan,” said Manon Navellou, Head of Mechanics at Withings.
“Our engineering team switched from an old file-based CAD system to Onshape in 2019 when we needed to replace our inefficient manual approach to version control in the development of our hugely successful hybrid smartwatch.
“When we were versioning manually, we sometimes would lose data because of someone saving their design on top of someone else’s version.
“This no longer happens with Onshape. To make our products, like U-Scan, stand out in the market we must iterate every day. We design something, prototype it, test it, make modifications, and then start the loop over again.
“PTC’s cloud-native platform means engineers no longer have to waste time worrying about data management and can spend most of their time focusing on design.”
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U-Scan is designed to be a versatile platform consisting of an advanced pebble-shaped reader and changeable analysis cartridges that assess specific biomarkers without the need for external sample capture or strips.
The latest Withings product debuts with U-Scan Cycle Sync (for women’s monthly cycle tracking and syncing) and U-Scan Nutri Balance, a detailed metabolic guide to hydration and nutrition.
Steve Mahoney, Senior Director Onshape, PTC EMEA, said: “Withings is changing the way millions of people across the world are monitoring their health.
“Having access to the most effective design and product data management platform from PTC is playing a key role in this innovation, as well as achieving industry-leading performance and speed to market that is so important when bringing something ‘new’ to the world.
“The power of collaboration and ‘single truth design data’ that Onshape delivers time and time again is so versatile and is being applied to the firm’s growing range of products. We can’t wait for the next ‘smart’ launch!”
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