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Skeletal Dynamics specifies a self-locking fastener to withstand up to one million loading cycles for its new elbow replacement implant.

"Patients are living longer and more vigorously than past generations, and that's only going to increase as baby boomers demand more from their muscular-skeletal systems well past traditional 'retirement age,'" said vice president of engineering Tom Norman of Miami-based Skeletal Dynamics, a designer and marketer of orthopedic devices.

Skeletal Dynamics recently developed its Align Radial Head System, an artificial elbow joint designed to restore the natural function of the native radial head.

"We aimed to fill a gap in the market by providing the ability to orient the joint to its natural position during surgery, and then locking it in place for the rest of the patient's life," Norman explained.  "We considered traditional fastener thread forms, but lacked confidence that they would stay in place for the up to a million load cycles an active patient could subject them to in their lifetime."

Skeletal Dynamics chose a self-locking Spiralock fastener. Spiralock, whose self-locking fasteners are used for design challenges in medical, aerospace/military, automotive, heavy truck, food processing, agriculture, construction, rail, and oil drilling industries, is part of Emhart Teknologies.

The self locking Spiralock fasteners have been used in applications from the main engines of NASA's Space Shuttle; to the Saturn Cassini orbiter and Titan Huygens probe; to medical implants, artificial limbs, and heart pumps. Web: spiralock.com