Milestones: 1970 - 1980

  • 1970 - Zimmer annual sales reach $27.2 million. Employment totals 522 employees.
  • 1970s - Experiments begin on use of porous materials to encourage bone growth around implants.
  • 1971 - Zimmer markets its first metal-plastic combination Charnley-type total hip prosthesis.
  • 1972 - Zimmer becomes a subsidiary of New York-based Bristol-Myers.
  • 1972 - Zimmer becomes the first company to successfully mold polyethylene into a viable orthopaedic product when hip cups from the material are introduced at the AAOS annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
  • 1973 - Zimmer markets its first metal-plastic total knee prosthesis.
  • 1977 - The purchase of Nemoto Shokai, a marketing concern on Japan, helps form the current Zimmer-Japan.
  • 1977 - Zimmer had been the exclusive distributor of Snyder Lab's highly successful wound drainage devices prior to acquiring this Ohio-based company Snyder Labs later became part of Zimmer Patient Care Division.
  • 1979 - The arrival of CAD/CAM system permits rapid design and evolution on product ideas and gives Zimmer a fully integrated computer system to maximize efficiency and to refine manufacturing quality to state-of-the-art standards.

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