Load-bearing medical implant or industrial structure has hard plastic dome and socket with preformed link fixture bonded to gel body

摘要

A gel body (1) is linked to a rigid body at an interface (5). The rigid body (4) has a socket (6) at the interface incorporating a suitable mechanical fixture (7) which holds the gel body in contact with the rigid body. The gel body is a mass of silica gel with a silica gel skin, or is a polyurethane skin (3) with a softer soft silica gel (2) core. The mechanical fixture (7) is a plastic component is harder than and is made from a different type of material to that used in the load-bearing part (4). The hard plastic (4) forms a dome (5) over the gel. The fixture is a form-component made of Sl which is bonded to the load-bearing component by vulcanisation, adhesive or welding. The gel body has a Shore hardness of 10.