Improving surface finish can extend the functionality and lifespan of osteosynthesis implants that promote bone growth following accidents or surgery. Despite design and manufacturing improvements in recent years, implants can fail due to:

• Fretting corrosion – Fluids inside the body, mechanical stress of functionality

• Performance – Polishing, finishing processes can impact fatigue, tensile strengths; reduce biocompatibility

Medical device manufacturing demands various post-processing steps, some that require manual labor. Some parts need only slight rounding and cleaning. Others need intensive processing such as polishing. Post-processing failures can cause metal to enter patients’ bloodstreams, resulting in blood poisoning.

Eliminating and improving post-processing to improve surface finishes can improve implants and patient care. The DLyte machine range specializes in dry finishing to improve implant surface finishes.

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Marposs has announced its real-time Remote Testing and Acceptance Service, enabling customers to participate in live testing, review, and acceptance of their machines/gauges/applications without having to travel, enabling work to continue in an efficient manner while saving time and money.

“The manufacturing industry is often criticized for a lack of modernization. With the pandemic preventing the ability to meet in-person, companies must adopt new technologies,” comments Matteo Zoin, Marposs, head of marketing and new market development. “We are living in a challenging time and to stay competitive requires aggressively moving into the digital space.”

Tests for North American customers are run at Marposs’ Technology Labs in Auburn Hills MI, Fremont CA, or at HQs in Europe. The sessions livestreamed through the Zoom Conference platform are supported by video cameras and wireless equipment to ensure a highly detailed and accurate experience. Customers can provide immediate feedback and any requested alterations can be made in real-time. 

For more information on this service or other Marposs’ offerings, call 248-370-0404.

As medical devices get smaller, manufacturers require innovative, more reliable ways to produce small and micro-sized plastic components. Conventional approaches are costly, inefficient, and often unable to deliver the required precision and speed. A new micro-injection molding technology called Isokor improves speed and precision by eliminating molding inefficiencies.

Most micromolders use cold runners to manufacture micro-sized parts, ejecting the cold runners with the parts after each molding cycle. Parts must then be detached from the cold runners, which are either scrapped or converted back into granules to feed back into molding machines. Though cumbersome, the process was the only means of making micro-sized plastic parts. Until now, companies procuring micro parts had no choice but to live with significant drawbacks and costs associated with using cold runners.

The world-changing promise of additive manufacturing (AM) has been held back by scalability challenges, but the latest 3D-printing platform removes that barrier, enabling a compelling alternative to traditional machining that can bring far reaching economic, innovation, and environmental advantages.

In the biomedical industry, AM can be a game changer. For example, orthotics and prosthetics (O&P) is an inherently custom industry where devices are handmade for each patient. While practitioners take great pride in the prosthetic sockets they make, traditional processes can take days or weeks for patients to get outfitted with a custom prosthesis.

Read the full article here.