bock jurist . for the danish athlete see otto bock athlete . otto bock healthcare gmbh type gmbh industry orthopaedic founded berlin germany 13 january 1919 13 january 1919 founder otto bock headquarters duderstadt germany key people hans georg n der de products wheelchair prosthetic artificial limbs revenue 771 million 2015 number of employees 6 300 2015 website www.ottobock.com ottobock is a german prosthetics company situated in duderstadt . it has been responsible for several innovations in prosthetics including the 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 . ottobock has been a partner to the paralympic games since 1988 and an international worldwide partner to the international paralympic committee since 2005 . contents 1 history 2 paralympic games 3 references 4 external links history edit ottobock was founded in berlin as orthop dische 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 k nigsee in thuringia . over the following two decades the company expanded to employ over 600 people . 1 science center medizintechnik in berlin after world war ii k nigsee lay within the russian occupied east germany . the company property and assets there were expropriated in 1948 . however max and maria n der 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 geremany occupied by the western powers . in 1947 max n der became the managing director of the newly formed otto bock orthop dische industrie kg . otto bock kunststoff was founded in 1953 . otto bock died in 1953 . 1 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 . 1 the company 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 . 2 3 1 in 1958 a us based corporate headquarters was established in minneapolis minnesota under the name ottobock . in march 2014 the company announced it would relocate its north american headquarters to austin texas . 4 the logistics facility will relocate to louisville kentucky and manufacturing will be moved to salt lake city utah . 5 6 the us company was its first foreign branch . by 2016 it had branches in 45 different countries . 1 sycor was established as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1998 . by 2015 it had 520 employees and annual revenues of 66.7 million . 7 professor hans georg n der became head of the company in 1990 . in 1992 after the fall of the berlin wall and the subsequent german reunification the n der family re purchased the land in k nigsee that had been expropriated in 1948 and established a new wheelchair manufacturing facility and logistics centre there . 1 a medical science centre german science center medizintechnik was built by the company in berlin in 2009 to celebrate 90 years since its foundation . 8 max n der did that year at the age of 94 . 1 by 2015 with a work force of 6 300 and annual sales of 771 million the company was valued at 2.5 billion . 9 paralympic games edit an ottobock technician repairs a wheelchair at the 2016 paralympic games in rio de janeiro ottobock has been a partner to the paralympic games since 1988 and an international worldwide partner to the international paralympic committee since 2005 . 10 the 2016 paralympic games in rio de janeiro was the 13th games at which it provided technical services . 11 this involved shipping 18 tonnes 18 long tons ; 20 short tons of equipment including 250 items classed as hazardous good or dangerous chemicals and 15 000 spare parts including 1 100 wheelchair tyres 70 running blades and 300 prosthetic feet 300 kilometres 190 mi from duderstadt to the port at bremerhaven 10 100 kilometres 6 300 mi by sea to santos and then 500 kilometres 310 mi by road to rio de janeiro . 12 at seoul in 1988 four ottobock technicians carried out 350 repairs ; 10 in rio de janeiro in 2016 100 technicians from 29 countries speaking 26 languages carried out 3 361 repairs for 1 162 athletes including 2 745 repairs to wheelchairs 438 to prosthetics and 178 to orthodics . 12 references edit a b c d e f g history over 90 years of progress and tradition . ottobock . retrieved 11 october 2016 . c leg 4 above knee prosthetic leg . ottobock usa . retrieved 11 october 2016 . otto bock healthcare wins the red dot best of the best three times in this year s red dot award product design . retrieved 8 may 2009 . grattan robert 31 march 2014 . german health care manufacturer to bring u.s. headquarters 110 jobs to austin . austin business journal . retrieved 23 august 2016 . ottobock relocating hq to texas other divisions to utah kentucky . the o & p edge . 23 january 2014 . retrieved 11 october 2016 . delzell emily april 2014 . ottobock moves operations to louisville . lower extremity review . p. 66 . retrieved 11 october 2016 . umsatz und mitarbeiterzahlen von sycor in german . sycor . retrieved 13 october 2016 . a science center for otto bock at potsdamer platz . retrieved 8 may 2009 . prothesen weltmarktf hrer otto bock will an die b rse in german . reuters . 10 july 2015 . retrieved 11 october 2016 . a b ottobock paralympic games fact sheet pdf . ottobock . retrieved 11 october 2016 . ottobock announced as the official provider for the rio 2016 paralympic games . international paralympic committee . 8 september 2014 . retrieved 11 october 2016 . a b today in the ottobock repair service centers . ottobock . retrieved 11 october 2016 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to category otto bock . wikinews has related news wikinews tours london paralympic village wheelchair repair workshop otto bock healthcare website virginia government paper citing the 1969 invention of the pyramid adapter by otto bock images of pyramid adapters aka modular leg prosthesis authority control worldcat identities viaf 225454211 gnd 2090721 7 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title otto bock & oldid 744087106 categories prosthetic manufacturersbionicsmanufacturing companies of germany2016 summer paralympicshidden categories cs1 german language sources de use dmy dates from october 2016interlanguage link template link numberarticles containing german language textwikipedia articles with viaf identifierswikipedia articles with gnd identifiers navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutsch edit links this page was last modified on 13 october 2016 at 01 28 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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