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In 200- and 400-meter sprints, an athlete’s control through the track’s curve can add or subtract crucial milliseconds — the difference between being crowned champion and taking second place. For gold-medal-winning American sprinter Allyson Felix, commanding this variable is just one of the many challenges integral to repeating her 2012 success. To address the challenge ahead of Rio, Felix entered into an unprecedented collaboration with Nike, comprising design and engineering research, with the aim of creating a new spike built specifically for the races’ requirements. Fig. 1:  Nike The Nike Zoom Superfly Flyknit unites extensive scientific analysis from Nike’s Sports Research Lab (NSRL) with computational design by the company’s designers and pixel-level stitch placement by its Flyknit engineers. Combining this data with perception testing by Felix and additional feedback from her coaches, the collective team precisely adapted the spike’s key elements of strength, fit and f...

Solvay Specialty Polymers , among the leading global suppliers of high-performance thermoplastics, announced that its fatigue-resistant, biocompatible Zeniva® polyetheretherketone (PEEK) resin helped Instratek fabricate the radiolucent implant component of its ToeTac™ Hammertoe Fixation System. A Houston-based developer of medical devices for extremity surgery, Instratek launched the ToeTac™ single-use kit in December 2015 for the operative repair of hammertoe deformities. “As our team investigated candidate materials for the ToeTac™ implant, we found Solvay’s Zeniva® PEEK was the only polymer that met all of our performance specifications,” said Lance Terrill, director of engineering at Instratek. “Not only was this high-performance material ideal for our clinical application, but Solvay’s comprehensive PEEK material testing package and superior customer service were also important factors in the success of this project.”  The ToeTac™ implant incorporates two threaded ends fo...