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AssigneeHowmedica, Inc.
InventorsRuey Y. Lin, Ashok K. Chopra, Allen P. Levine, Bernard Silverstein
Estimating the term…
A prosthetic acetabular cup assembly, for receiving a ball attached to a femur, including components interlocked via a locking mechanism that includes a retaining ring fabricated at least in part using a polyaryletherketone material, such as PEEK. The locking mechanism is designed to meet predefined constraints such as assuring that substantially all motion is eliminated between assembled parts, assuring further that push-in/pull-out forces of assembly are within generally accepted industry standards, etc. Further aspect of the invention are directed to (a) the form and composition of the locking mechanism per se, such as locking mechanisms including a retaining ring fabricated at least in part using a polyaryletherketone material, where the shape of the retaining ring and manner in which it cooperates with the other components in the cup assembly results in a locking mechanism that satisfies the aforementioned constraints; (b) processes for fabricating specific types of retaining rings for use in securing the components of an acetabular cup assembly; and (c) to locking rings per se made utilizing polyaryletherketone material and composites including a polyaryletherketone material.
A process for fabricating a retaining ring for an acetabular cup assembly that includes (a) an insert bearing component having an inner bearing surface for receiving said ball and an outer surface formed to include an arcuate groove therein and (b) an outer shell component for attachment to an acetabulum to replace a natural hip socket, the outer shell component including an inner surface defining a cavity for receiving said insert bearing component therein, said inner surface of said outer shell component being formed to include an arcuate groove therein at a location that is axially aligned with the arcuate groove formed in said insert bearing component, comprising the steps of:
A process for fabricating retaining rings used in acetabular cup assemblies for interlocking the components thereof, comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.