Maleny inventor Dean Cameron has created a revolutionary method of locking joints of many varying shapes. The humble clam, and the way it attaches itself to rocks via hooks on the end of silk-like filaments, was the inspiration behind the Invention of the Year, awarded last night at the grand final of ABC1’s The New Inventors.
Maleny man Dean Cameron was reading a book to his son two years ago and was intrigued by the way clams are able to use the tensile strength of filaments – called byssus threads – to attach themselves to rocks. This confirmed the mechanical holding principle he was experimenting with to invent the Joinlox joining technology.
Joinlox uses a series of interlocking “hooks”, that are joined together by a sliding “key”, which locks the hooks together. The hooks on Joinlox replace shear forces with much stronger tensile forces, dramatically increasing the strength and water-tightness of the join.
Mr Cameron says Joinlox is a simple, new alternative to traditional joining methods such as nuts, bolts, screws, welding or gluing.
One of The New Inventors judges said she felt as though she was present at the birth of “industrial velcro”.
Mr Cameron said Joinlox could be used for a wide range of applications, from the construction of tanks and boxes to electrical enclosures, large pipes, bridges, cars, planes and even mission-critical aerospace projects. He has been approached by many manufacturers and designers across a range of industries.
