Custom Sensors For Bone Fractures & Surgical Applications

Market: Medical | Product Line: Load Cells

Application: 

A fixator that is used to correct and align bone fractures. Six struts are used to align the bone segments. Force measurements are used to provide feedback to surgeons as to the healing progress & thus providing feedback for further strut adjustments.

Customer Challenge:

Required a custom sensor to measure length changes of frame struts, the use of the sensor cuts down on human error of manually entering measurements. Incorrect information entered can have significant adverse complications in the patient, and because of the frequency of data being entered, human error was a high-risk.

SMD Sensor Solution:

Strain Measurement Devices provided multiple custom devices for the customer. A sensor was mounted in a series with one or more struts to monitor the axial force. Along with the force sensor, a actuator was designed, geared with DC lead-screen mechanism. The total solution development fit into a lightweight package.