Brains Trust- Metal Fatigue

[NavyDiver]

Metal Fatigue bites a few of us at time with 4wds and rough stuff. I did some Metal Fatigue in style breaking a screw in my tibia. It was in the titanium rod in my tibia [thumbsupbig] That tickled[bigwhistle] Funnily it has a little/lot to do with my current metal fatigue question. I have been on forearm Crutches since the day I broke the screw in October last year. Two operations with cool Doctors had me thinking I might have a week or two more use for the crutches only[biggrin]

Today I sat in a odd location on a stool with my glasses on and crutches beside me an notices several cracks in the metal holding the handles on the crutches. Both sides have several alarmingly large long cracks. The are a fairly to very cheap crutch from a large franchised chemist. Cost all of $49. Weight rated to 90kg and I am at least 10kg lighter than that even after 9 month of being a sloth.

I cannot find any grumbles of a similar issue anywhere which is interesting. Very happy I noted as I have 2 flights of stairs in my house and at work which If the handles broke on the way down would have left me face planting at the bottom in a very uncertain condition. [bigwhistle]

Question:
One- Anyone seen anything similar in a item which could kill you- Angle grinder disk springs to mind[tonguewink]
Two-Should they warn you of a life time use limit for crutches as they do with Angle grinder disks?
Three- Should I give a toss or just toss them in the bin and get a new pair

I am getting a new pair in the morning and down stair tomorrow is on my back side not on the crutches. Half convinced I should inform the importers or T.G.A. as honestly feel more than lucky this did not get found the hard way. I would hate to have it hurt some one else.
Mods Note- I may just qualify for a extra "Very or Lucky" in my name or change to "LUCKY Bastard"

[Blknight.aus]

go check out

aluminium ladders
well used sparkies ladders
stainless steel ladder rails on some boats and blinged 4x4's
fibreglass ladders.

goto some aviation sites and check out ally frame fatigue.

and people wonder why I dont like going up high but am comfortable with being deep underwater.

[V8Ian]

James, I think it's your duty to inform the standards mob.

[roverrescue]

Linky linky

For consumers | Product Safety Australia (https://www.productsafety.gov.au/contact-us/for-consumers)


I made a notification of a 5” diamond grinding doc
Was from eBay of course
Whoflungdung quality but labelled as meeting AS
Listed as wet or dry grinding

Made my complaint stockist said it was because I was using the grinder dry (duh) the diamond “teeth” flying across the shed at some silly velocity I deemed as sub-optimal - this is after about 10 seconds of grinding.

Anyways - the stockist changed the listing to wet grinding only ... please explain how many 5” grinders have hose attachments.

I finished the job after buying a much more expensive disc from a bricks and Mortar store.

Point being the online notification is a both a stick for dodgy stockists but also means true safety issues like yours get acted on

Steve

[JDNSW]

Definitely notify TGA, and I would also notify the retailer.

As mentioned above, fatigue cracking has been a known critical issue in the aviation field at least since the Comet airliners started to come to bits in mid air, but I seem to remember the first plane crash formally identified as a fatigue related accident in about 1940 in Australia when a Stinson lost a wing between Adelaide and Melbourne.

[NavyDiver]

TGA report done. 30 minutes of fun. Rang the retail store who seemed mildly interested yet surprised I did not want a replacement . Grabbed my full length pair from work after carefully checking the metal work on them. Loved the forearm version as I as mentioned elsewhere could put them on my back while riding my now stolen bike[bigsad]

Found a little bit of information but still assume the crutches are imported
"The [B]Wagner brand was sold by Vitaco to Chemist Warehouse in July, although it is still being manufactured by Vitaco for the pharmacy retailer.Dec 28, 2017"

Going to suggest they check if it is a bigger issue and they also put suggestion to regularly check for metal fatigue for gooses like longer term users like me.



Have a great day all and thank you Brains Trust.