Laboratory

The Thayer School orthopaedic research laboratory is physically divided into three rooms of approximately equal size, totaling nearly 3,000 square feet. An additional off-site, climate controlled facility houses the implant library. One room houses our core laboratory team and is dedicated to education and gross evaluation of devices. Polycom VHX videoconference capabilities, a networked large depth of field microscope, meeting space and spectroscopy equipment are also housed here. A second room is dedicated to implant processing, artificial aging, metrology, and mechanical testing. The final room is dedicated to biomaterial processing and is home to chemical and structural analysis equipment, as well as tribological testing devices.

The orthopedic biomaterials laboratory includes comprehensive facilities for preparation, testing and analysis of tribological specimens. It includes a 6-station AMTI Ortho-POD Pin-on-disk tester, and a 6-station Rolling-sliding tribotester. Both of these testing machines are able to be modified to achieve desired articulation geometries and conditions.

The laboratory has compression molding equipment (50-ton capacity) capable of making custom formulations and geometries of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). It also houses machining equipment and analytical equipment dedicated to biomaterials specimens (detailed below). This laboratory also houses a Zeiss Contura G2 CMM for high resolution metrology of specimens.

The orthopedic retrieval laboratory is on the same floor of Thayer School as the biomaterials laboratory and the two are closely integrated. This laboratory receives, documents, and analyzes all retrieved orthopaedic devices sent to the Dartmouth Biomedical Engineering Center. This laboratory includes imaging equipment for device and sample documentation at magnifications to 1000x and equipment for nanometer-scale surface profilometry.

Most joint arthroplasty retrievals with current-generation bearings (ceramic-on-ceramic, metal-on-metal, highly cross-linked UHMWPE) are housed in this laboratory space; the remainder of the archive of 15,000 retrieved components are housed in a climate-controlled storage facility approximately 3 miles from the laboratory in Wilder, VT. Approved laboratory personnel have 24 hour-per-day access.