Mixed double

It might look like a simple glue gun, but a bone cement mixing device made from a plastic metal substitute, is helping to provide surgeons with a fast and easy method of mixing and injecting bone cement used to affix implants and remodel lost bone.

The design of BoCeMix, from Italian medical device company

, integrates mixing and injecting components. Swiss engineer Ernst Poppe of

, which invented and produces the device's material, Delrin, said: 'To go from mixing to applying you don't have to do anything apart from pulling the device's trigger ring and start applying it.'

BoCeMix is made from five injection-moulded parts of unreinforced Delrin, an acetal resin engineering plastic. This is lightweight, low-friction and wear-resistant and has been used in various other applications for years as a metal substitute.

The designers behind BoCeMix say Delrin's natural elasticity eliminated the need for any metal pieces on the device. While traditional bone cement injectors may require a metal return spring for the trigger, BoCeMix uses a moulded plastic leaf-spring.