Local company hopes to revolutionize surgeries, home repairs with a unique twist | Business

A local company is hoping to be the backbone of spinal surgeries and home repairs, with a new invention that’s as simple as a screwdriver.

With a cylindrical handle affixed to a stainless axial shaft, the Velocity Driver looks like a tool found in every man’s garage, until a quick twist reveals its unique Double Drive technology.

Auburn resident, Dave Judge, co-founder of Ratchet Solutions Inc., says their company has developed revolutionary gear-driven technology screwdriver, that allows continuous drive in one direction, regardless of the way the handle is turned. The result: double the speed with no wasted motion.

“We really think it’s going to make traditional ratcheting screwdrivers obsolete,” Judge says.

The idea of Double Drive technology came to Judge when a friend, Dave Rau, who is now Director of Sales, noticed a unique invention at a tool trade show. At the show, Rau talked to an inventor who described his double drive screwdriver, and the two worked a deal to begin producing the technology.

Judge and Rau, ran with the idea, partnering with Bob Overmars and Robert Lloyd to form a company that would that would sell more than 800,000 units in 2011.

Ratchet Solutions’ success came with the help of BPI Medical, a Fife company that repairs surgical instruments.  Bob  Overmars, CEO of BPI Medical  and Ratchet Solutions worked with Judge and Rau, funding the making of prototypes to develop two types of Double Drive screwdrivers, one for the home and one for the surgery room.

Lowe’s Home Improvement picked up the at-home version, Velocity Driver, purchasing 800,000 units that sold out in eight weeks around the holidays.

The company now hopes to partner with major medical device companies, such as Stryker and Depuy Spine, to produce the Velocity Medical Screwdriver and get the tools in surgery rooms internationally.

Judge says the Double Drive technology in their medical version of the screwdriver will allow surgeons to perform a smoother, more precise operations when dealing with spinal fusions and orthopedic operations, in patients with scoliosis and other back curvature issues.

“Whenever you can bring something to assist a surgeon or reduce the time of the procedure, it’s better for the patient,” he says.

The Velocity Medical Screwdriver is now in trial, but Overmars says after the trial, surgeons in Auburn, Tacoma, Federal Way and Seattle will likely be using this equipment for their surgeries.

“The tactile feel of the screwdriver allows surgeons to really feel exactly what they’re doing,” Overmars says. “With a normal screwdriver you can put a screw into a 2-by-4 and you mess up you can just pull it out no problem, but when you’re putting a screw into bone, we have a totally different issue.”

The Velocity Driver, is sold as the Kobalt “Double Drive,”

The medical version is still being developed in Fife by BPI Medical’s technicians, and may be soon seen in local surgery rooms.