Ryan ChartrandCal Poly is looking to license out a flexible bolt that has uses in construction, medicine and many other facets of life.
The Flexible Fastener, designed and built by a team of Cal Poly students and faculty, can fit into nonaligned or mismatched holes and can be fastened to parts with nonparallel surfaces, such as roof trusses (which support roofs). They can also aid in robotics assembly and have the capability to add pliancy to artificial knees and other joints.
Cal Poly patented the Flexible Fastener in 2005.
The special bolts move side-to-side, like a spring, while remaining stiff top-to-bottom, which allows it to be tightened.
They have uses in everyday tasks, such as securing loads to the end of a truck or attaching nonuniform pieces together.
“If you buy something, like a spare part, and the holes don’t match, or if you’re a bad carpenter and your holes don’t align, then this will work,” said Saeed Niku, professor and graduate advisor for mechanical engineering, who oversaw the project. “You can use your imagination. Every time you need a device that needs bending and then tightening, then this would be appropriate.”
The flexible bolts will be especially useful in retrofitting buildings with older architecture and unreinforced masonry, said architectural engineering professor Abe Lynn. Structural elements in these buildings are often hard to access, he said, making it difficult to drill holes that are exact in alignment and angle.
“Contractors were looking for these bolts a long time ago. It’s like velcro; it makes our lives easier. For contractors, it’s not going to replace every bolt, but there are certain situations where it will help make it easier,” Lynn said.
Birthed from a “flash of imagination” while Niku’s philosophy of design students were sitting in his office a few years ago, the project received funding from the National Collegiate Innovators and Inventors Alliance to develop a prototype.
While recognizing the significance of receiving a patent on a product that will give prestige and revenue to the university, Niku said he has taken the process in stride.
“It’s a feeling of satisfaction to see the idea reduced to useful practice,” Niku said. “It would be fantastic to see it in stores where people could actually buy it. But everything you see, someone has invented. It puts this in perspective.”