Thread: Brains Trust- Metal Fatigue

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 That tickled 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

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.

Question:
One- Anyone seen anything similar in a item which could kill you- Angle grinder disk springs to mind
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"

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

Found a little bit of information but still assume the crutches are imported
"The 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.