Washington, US – Sawbones, which manufactures polyurethane foam bone surrogate materials for the orthopaedics industry, and collaborator Numalogics have developed a validation study for a virtual standardised biomechanical test for orthopaedic screws.
ASTM F543 is the specific standard that describes how orthopaedic metal screws are tested, specifying PU foam as a bone surrogate. Sawbones is the global standard material for these tests.
The new virtual model is a virtual bench test in which any metallic screw can be inserted into a virtual Sawbones PU foam block and tested according to ASTM F543. The results of the validation show that real-life physical testing is accurately represented in the virtual test.
The companies believe this will allow the designers and manufacturers of orthopaedic implants can design and test new screws more quickly and cheaply, as the prototyping phase will be shorter.
“[We strive] to offer the most comprehensive, easy to use products that consistently simulate bone characteristics for physical testing,” said Amy Bosch, biomechanical design engineer at Sawbones. “By adding computational simulation to our biomechanical test line, customers will be able to rank, analyse failure and optimise device designs more efficiently.”
The two companies will make the model available through Sawbones’ regular sales channels later this year.
