LumbaCurve Ltd

Business Overview:

Hyndburn company LumbaCurve Limited was founded in 2009 and has one employee. Its product is Lumbacurve, a patented therapy device designed to provide pain relief to sufferers of low back pain. Development of the product was spurred by the fact that universally, back pain sufferers gained most relief from lying on the back.

The spinal cord is protected by a segmented spinal column; a mechanical structure of discs and joints, reinforced by muscle and ligaments. When healthy, each of the segments work in harmony. Between the segments are a series of pain sensitive spinal nerves, that branch off from the spinal cord. If the structure is impaired, the affected area may impinge on the spinal nerve resulting in a variety of symptoms including pain and nausea. Lying on the back relaxes the spine and decompression of the spinal segments takes place. As desirable as it may be, lying on the back will only provide varying and temporary relief. A more effective measure is required in addressing the root cause of the lower back pain for sustained results.

The concept behind LumbaCurve was to combine the best of East and West therapies. The product initially provides a passive gravity assisted traction – put simply it gently stretches the lower back, causing the vertebral joints to separate. This in turn, relaxes the discs and frees up the spinal nerves, thus giving pain relief.

In addition to this Lumbacurve design features provide the combined benefits of shiatsu stimulation, yogic stretch, and acupressure massage.

Regenerate’s role:

A first production batch was completed using RIM (reaction Injection Moulding) manufacture. This differs from normal injection moulding in that the injected plastic contains two parts which react to form a foam, making the resultant moulding a solid one-piece foam shape with a hard outer skin.

The price of the moulding has risen steeply whilst demand for the product is rising, partly due to television exposure on the Dr Chris Steele spot on ITV’s This Morning show, and it has been found necessary to research a lower cost method of manufacture. Regenerate assisted the client to initiate research to determine other potential ways of manufacture, including injection moulding (with the product in two pieces joined together, necessary for this type of moulding), and rotational moulding.

The Project

Rotational moulding has proved to be the cheaper method. Additional advantages have been identified in that the product can be made in one piece with this technique, and the wall thickness can be easily varied. Thicker walls can be achieved simply by injecting more polymer into the mould.

In addition, the device needs a certain amount of weight for stability in use, and this can be achieved by thicker walls with rotational moulding, whilst with injection moulding it would be necessary to add a steel plate between the two parts of the moulding during assembly.

Reactions to the product by users have been universally positive, and the only suggestion has been to make the product very slightly softer to the touch, which can easily be achieved through rotational moulding by correct choice of polymer.

Regenerate assisted to fund a prototype moulding tool, and a small number of sample mouldings in a variety of polymers to identify the best one, before tooling up for production commences.

The project will allow the company to fully launch the product and should lead to the employment of at least one additional member of staff in the near future. The client is remaining in touch with Regenerate as production tooling is commissioned.