Bodkin Style Bone Anchor Tip for Dense Bone Penetration
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional self-punching bone anchors with conical tips struggle to penetrate harder, denser bone, leading to misalignment, bone fracture, and the need for metal components in orthopedic procedures.
Innovation Solution
A self-punching bone anchor tip with a unique cutting geometry featuring multiple converging cutting edges and broaches that reduce friction and hoop stress, allowing efficient penetration and osteotomy formation in denser bone, and enabling the use of softer materials like polymers and biocomposites.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a conical tip is used for self-punching bone anchors, then the anchor can be implanted without a pre-punched pilot hole, but the tip struggles to penetrate harder, denser bone and causes skiving off the bone surface
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the geometric parameters of the tip from a conventional conical shape to a bodkin-style configuration with a cylindrical shaft and transverse cutting edge. This parameter change allows the cutting edge to engage the bone surface perpendicularly, enabling reliable penetration in dense bone while maintaining self-punching capability without requiring a pilot hole.
2Productivity
If a conical tip is used, then the anchor can create an osteotomy in soft to medium density bone, but it causes misalignment and bone anchor fracture in harder bone
Solution Approach 1:
The bodkin-style tip geometry with its cylindrical shaft and transverse cutting edge creates a more stable insertion path that maintains alignment with the intended osteotomy trajectory. The cutting edge engages the bone surface in a controlled manner that prevents deviation and misalignment, ensuring precise anchor placement even in dense bone.
3Ease of operation
If a conical tip is used, then the anchor can be inserted into bone, but it requires multiple mallet strikes and causes bone cracking in dense bone
Solution Approach 1:
The transverse cutting edge oriented perpendicular to the longitudinal axis enables the tip to cut through the bone surface efficiently with minimal impact forces. This geometry reduces the number of mallet strikes required and prevents bone cracking by distributing the cutting forces along the cutting edge rather than concentrating them at a conical apex.
4Ease of operation
If conventional self-punching anchors are used, then implantation can proceed without pilot hole, but metal components must be used to ensure sufficient strength for penetration
Solution Approach 1:
The bodkin-style tip geometry with its optimized cutting edge creates sufficient mechanical advantage to penetrate bone using softer materials. This allows the use of biocompatible polymers, biocomposites, or biologic materials instead of metal, eliminating metal residue concerns while maintaining the self-punching capability that eliminates the need for pilot holes.
Data Source
AI summary
A tip for a bone anchor having cutting edges that converge at an end of the body to form a point and thus define a series of cutting faces. The cutting faces can be planar or curved, and can also be multi-faceted. The tip may include a broach that extends parallel or at an angle relative to tip. The broach may be partially or fully interrupted by one of the cutting faces. The tip is designed to be coupled to any variety of bone anchor types, including those with mechanical retention structures, that change shape in response to insertion into a bone, or that have threads for advancing the anchor into a bone. The anchor and the body may be integrally formed together, and the anchor and the body may be formed from different materials.