Gate type influence on thermal characteristics of injection molded biodegradable interference screws for ACL reconstruction

In biomedical applications high precision manufacturing is an essential requirement. With precision injection molding it is possible to manufacture implants from thermoplastic materials for both short and long term use. This paper focuses on the injection molding analysis of a biodegradable implant for tendon fixation. Finite element simulation was carried out to compare thermal characteristics of the process, with two different types of gating. All analyses, including the thermal simulations and dimensional stability analysis show, that different gatings do not affect part deformation or shrinkage beyond the accepted limit, although they show some differences.