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AssigneeRichards Medical Company
InventorsFu-Kuo Chang, Kenneth Reifsnider, James A. Davidson, Frederick S. Georgette
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Orthopedic device of biocompatible polymer with oriented fiber reinforcement. There is provided a device such as a hip stem which has a longitudinally curved body. The reinforcing fibers are continuous filament fiber plies with parallel oriented fibers in each ply. The plies are curved longitudinally to approximately correspond to the curve of the body. In one embodiment, there are longitudinally oriented fiber plies at or near the surfaces of the device and plies with fibers offset at 5.degree.-40.degree. from the longitudinal axis between the surface layers. The fiber orientation is balanced by providing a ply of negatively angled offset fibers of a similar angle for each positively angled offset ply. The device is made by molding plies preimpregnated with polymer (prepregs) simultaneously, by molding a plurality of prepregs into segments which are then molded together, or by molding a segment and incrementally molding additional layers of prepregs thereto in a series of progressively larger molds.
A method of making a prosthetic device of a composite of reinforcing fibers embedded in a matrix of biocompatible polymeric material, wherein the prosthesis body has an elongate dimension such that in the body the resultant of the forces applied to the prosthetic device is substantially along the axis of the elongate dimension, the method comprising the steps of:
A method of making a prosthetic device of a composite of reinforcing fibers embedded in a matrix of biocompatible polymeric material, wherein the prothesis body has an elongate dimension such that in the body the resultant of the forces applied to the prosthetic device is substantially along the axis of the elongate dimension, comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.