Otto Bock
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| GmbH | |
| Industry | Orthopaedic |
| Founded | Berlin, Germany (13 January 1919) |
| Founder | Otto Bock |
| Headquarters | Duderstadt, Germany |
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Key people
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Hans Georg Näder |
| Products | wheelchair, prosthetic, artificial limbs |
| Revenue | €771 million (2015) |
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Number of employees
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6,300 (2015) |
| Website | www.ottobock.com |
Otto Bock is a German prosthetics company situated in Duderstadt. It has been responsible for several innovations in prosthetics, including the C-Leg, a computerized knee that adaptively varies its passive resistance to suit the patients' different walking gaits, and the Michelangelo Hand, a fully articulated robotic hand prosthesis. Otto Bock has been a partner to the Paralympic Games since 1988, and an international worldwide partner to the International Paralympic Committee since 2005. In 2016, the partnership was extended until the end of 2020.
Otto Bock was founded in Berlin as Orthopädische Industrie GmbH in 1919 by its namesake prosthetist, Otto Bock. It was created in response to the large number of injured veterans from World War I. Prostheses handmade by craftsmen could not keep up with demand. Bock's idea was to create components through industrial processes that could be supplied to prosthetists. This marked the beginning of a new industry. The political situation in post-war Berlin was unstable, and soon after the company was founded, it moved to Königsee in Thuringia. Over the following two decades, the company expanded to employ over 600 people.
After World War II, Königsee lay within the Russian-occupied East Germany. The company property and assets there were expropriated in 1948. However, Max and Maria Näder, Bock's son-in-law and daughter, had established an office in Duderstadt in Lower Saxony, initially as a sales office for the zones of Germany occupied by the Western powers. In 1947, Max Näder became the managing director of the newly formed Otto Bock Orthopädische Industrie KG. Otto Bock died in 1953.
The company has been responsible for several innovations in prosthetics. As wood was in short supply in the early post-war years, it pioneered the use of polyurethane to manufacture prosthetics. Otto Bock Kunststoff was founded in 1953 to produce plastic prosthetics. By 2016, it employed 423 people and anticipated revenues of €127 million. Otto Bock developed the pyramid adapter, a highly adjustable linkage for prosthetic parts. It 1997, it introduced the C-Leg, a computerized knee that adaptively varies its passive resistance to suit the patients' different walking gaits. It was the world's first fully microprocessor-controlled leg prosthesis system, and transformed the company into a vendor of highly complex mobility systems. The C-Leg was followed by the Michelangelo Hand, a fully articulated robotic hand prosthesis, and the mechatronic C-Brace orthotronic mobility system. Otto Bock developed the waterproof Genium X3 knee in cooperation with the United States Department of Defense to allow amputee soldiers to return to duty.
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Wikipedia