The purpose of this work is to assess the stress state in a plate-type device characterized by a conical joint between plate and screws connected through a titanium insert. Stress distributions for two different loading conditions (screw tension and bending) were computed by means of 3-dimensional FEM models. Results show that the titanium insert flexibility provides a well distributed load in the plate and can thus help reducing stress-shielding phenomena. The last part of this work shows our clinical experience.
