The Anatomic Radial Head Slide-Loc is a system I worked on from concept to launch. The implant system is designed to assemble inside the body cavity to allow for a smaller surgical incision and exposure. I worked on both the implant and the instrumentation which must coordinate for a successful surgery. Manufacturing was consulted early and often in the design, allowing me to develop a deep understanding and appreciation of many manufacturing techniques. I learned how to design for milling, turning, welding, wire EDM, Swiss, and many more processes. I also worked with technicians and quality engineers to put together inspection plans that considered the available inspection tools like thread gauges, optical comparator, gauge pins, micrometers, hardness tester, and CMM. United States Patent 9,763,792
The Anatomic Radial Head Slide-Loc is a system I worked on from concept to launch. The implant system is designed to assemble inside the body cavity to allow for a smaller surgical incision and exposure. I worked on both the implant and the instrumentation which must coordinate for a successful surgery. Manufacturing was consulted early and often in the design, allowing me to develop a deep understanding and appreciation of many manufacturing techniques. I learned how to design for milling, turning, welding, wire EDM, Swiss, and many more processes. I also worked with technicians and quality engineers to put together inspection plans that considered the available inspection tools like thread gauges, optical comparator, gauge pins, micrometers, hardness tester, and CMM. United States Patent 9,763,792
I designed the contour of this implant to replicate the natural anatomy of the proximal radius. I carefully scuplted each curvature, consulting with an expert surgeon. Multiple sizes were designed to fit different patients. The model was created using Creo ISDX surfacing software.
The trial implant system was a devilishly tricky design to tackle. The final assembly is about the size of 10 stacked pennies. Inside, there are many features and moving parts. To ensure the design worked consistently and the parts were producible, I used a tolerance stack analysis to squeeze out and redistribute every thou, accommodating machine capability.
Working in tandem with manufacturing, I designed this retractor with consideration for bending challenges such as cracking at bend sites due to overlapping aggressive bends and spring back. The blanks and bend form were developed together. After the part was deemed satisfactory, multiple prototypes were created, inspected via CMM, and I created the CAD model according to the final produced form. This was an effort to streamline the instrument development process.
This was the final design of the height gauge. It was my first engineering design task after I left school and was ambitious. The first versions of this tool were complex: a four bar mechanism, a slider, able to change to different thicknesses via a rocker cam component. It was a cool design, but not the best design for the task at hand. I swallowed my pride, scrapped the design and changed to this simple gap gauge concept. Learning to simplify against my better aspirations was difficult, but served me well in the long run.