Using CAE technology to design durable implants and implement effective fatigue evaluation
Bone implant designs must be precise and durable to withstand significant load and pressure over time. One of the most frequent and severe joint inflictions, osteoarthritis, often requires administration of a Total Hip Replacement (THR). This implant, being significantly load-bearing, requires a complex design that is strong enough to withstand long durations of load.
Detroit Engineered Products (DEP) effectively tackled this challenge by developing 3D CAD models for implants and building an effective fatigue evaluation model to assess the life cycle of various implants. Through its proprietary CAE platform, MeshWorks, DEP used unique morphing and meshing tools to further understand non-standard hip implant geometries. This enabled DEP to carry out hypothetical test scenarios and estimate the fatigue life of implants, which resulted in significant benefits in extending the overall life of the implants.
DEP’s MeshWorks technology provides a platform that allows users to generate multiple, customizable designs based on customer variations, reduces design time compared to traditional methods of implant design, reduces design costs for companies and serves as a comparative tool for comparison with other competitive products.
With its in-house design team and CAE platform, DEP’s engineers calculate fatigue life cycles of implants and run multiple tests to help combat uncertainty once the implant is created and implemented.
DEP’s software introduces a faster time saving method of designing. In the conventional design process for an implant, the design is built as a 1D CAD data, then converted to a 3D CAD data and then into a 3D mesh data, on which virtual validation is conducted. This testing involves considerable back and forth with CAD data, which can be time consuming. In the new process, as soon as the 2D line data is available, it can be directly taken into MeshWorks and converted into a 3D mesh data. This 3D mesh is now parametric, and as virtual testing is conducted, changes can be done directly in the mesh data, and the time taken to and from design changes with CAD can be reduced.
Speaking on the latest development by the team, the Chief Innovation Officer at DEP, Mr. Karthik Shankaran said, “While working closely with biomedical companies, we found the need for specific mesh modeling tools, morphing tools and optimization techniques. This tool from MeshWorks will not only help companies save time as they use it for meshing and virtual validation but will help in the area of preparing regulatory and non-regulatory virtual validation reports for FDA before clinical trials as well.”
Detroit Engineered Products
www.depusa.com
