Company History

Joinlox started because somebody said something wasn't possible.

Dean Cameron's waste-water treatment company, Biolytix Water, spent what is considered to be too much money transporting plastic tanks around the country and overseas. In August 2006, he asked his team to come up with a reliable method of moving the tanks in stacks and then assembling them at the destination. Transporting more tanks per truck, he knew, would reduce costs dramatically.

He received an answer he didn’t want to hear: there is no easy way to attach large plastic lids to large plastic tanks to produce a strong, watertight seal. Traditional methods of producing parts with an internal cavity have always involved welding, gluing, bolting or screwing parts together. This could only be done, he was told, in a factory. It was a problem that had stumped industrial designers for decades.

Like all good inventors, Dean viewed this as a challenge.

He studied the way clams and other seashells attach themselves to rock ledges using anchors at the end of hundreds of small filaments, called byssus threads. He understood that these threads, although thin and flexible, have a high tensile strength and can produce a very strong hold when their strength is added together.

He then applied this principle to Joinlox, developing a technology that involves two interlocked edges which mesh together like the teeth of a zipper. A ‘key’ is placed between the interlocking teeth and hammered or levered into place, wedging the parts together. An engineering company did computer modeling stress tests on Joinlox joins and determined that despite the fact that they use less material they could be several times stronger than a bolted flange.

The result is a new joining system that is simple, inexpensive, widely-applicable and strong enough to cover a huge range of industrial applications.

In June 2007 Joinlox was registered, and lodged provisional patents in 70 countries around the world.

Today Joinlox, based in Brisbane, Australia, has four aims:

• To rapidly bring Joinlox benefits to leading manufacturers and designers wanting to save money, energy, materials and time.
• To reduce carbon emissions through more efficient manufacturing and delivery processes.
• To reduce wastage by extending the service life of parts and assemblies.
• To create innovative designs and new products that were impossible to mass produce before Joinlox.