The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is holding a public workshop, "Reprocessing of Reusable Medical Devices Workshop."

The purpose of the workshop is to discuss factors affecting the reprocessing of reusable medical devices and FDA's plans to address the identified issues. This workshop is part of an ongoing FDA effort to address patient exposure to inadequately reprocessed reusable medical devices with the overall goal to reduce the risk of infection. The topics to be discussed are: Factors affecting reprocessing quality, device design as it relates to reprocessing reusable medical devices, reprocessing methodologies, validation methodologies, and healthcare facility best practices.

Date and Time of the public workshop will be June 8, 2011, from 8:30am to 5:30pm and June 9, 2011, from 8:30am to 5pm.

The workshop will be held in the Great Room at the FDA White Oak Conference Center, Bldg. 31, Rm. 1503, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20993.

Glenn Smith has been named Western Pennsylvania’s direct Sales Engineer for Absolute Machine Tools Inc. as of April 1, 2011.  Glenn will use his exemplary talents and experience to promote Absolute Machine Tools’ extensive product line of CNC machine tools and Wire EDM’s including; Johnford, Tongtai, You Ji, QuickTECH, and AccuteX EDM.

Glenn Smith began his career as a Manufacturer and Project Manager for Contraves, USA in Northboro, Massachusetts. Smith then became an Instructor of Machine Technology at the New Castle School of Trades in New Castle, PA. Soon after, Smith became the Shop Lead Man and CNC Programmer for A& M Specialties in Wheatland, PA where he trained and supervised all CNC operations. He used that experience to begin his machine tool sales career selling for Trumbull Industries, MSC Industrial Supply Co, Simonds International Knife & Saw, Wapakometa Machine Co., Premier Knife Company LLC, and Morris from 1996-2010.

Smith’s extensive experience in selling a variety of manufacturing products has helped him gain the knowledge and skills that he needs to embark on selling high quality precision machines for Absolute Machine Tools, Inc.

“I am very excited to be a part of the Absolute Machine Tools team and I am confident that my efforts in Western, PA will add to the success of the company,” Smith says. 

Knight Carbide’s recent purchase of two CNC grinders will reduce backlog, increase capacity on milling inserts and facilitate prompt deliveries.  The two machines, a used Ewag Ewamatic to be rebuilt and a new Wendt Alpha periphery grinder were integrated into Knight’s operations in March, 2011.

“Investing $500,000 in high-quality capital equipment is an example of Knight’s ongoing commitment to provide value-driven service and world-class carbide inserts. Our Customers demand prompt deliveries so we are making this investment to meet their requirements” says Bruce Kyle, president, Knight Carbide.

The Ewag Ewamatic is a versatile small-tool grinder which Kyle says will “reduce backlog on Knight’s threading inserts, grooving inserts and form tools”. The Ewag is capable of performing multiple functions in producing, carbide inserts with features such as multiple clearance angles, radii, top rakes and T lands in a single clamping.

The Wendt Alpha periphery grinder is a production machine for high-precision grinding of cutting inserts. According to Kyle the machine will increase capacity on Knight’s carbide milling inserts.

Feature benefits of the Wendt Alpha periphery grinder include powerful CNC control, flexible programming language, automatic loading, and measuring for producing complex milling inserts to precise specifications.

Please Contact Knight Carbide to discuss our carbide insert manufacturing capabilities.

Knight Carbide is a leading carbide insert manufacturer of custom and standard precision-ground carbide inserts, indexable inserts and carbide cutting tool solutions. ISO 9001: 2000 Certified.

The MTConnect communications standard has made important in-roads throughout the manufacturing industry as a way to improve connectivity and interoperability on the shop floor. To bring together both the business and technical sides of MTConnect in one place, the MTConnect Institute is planning the first-ever [MC]^2 MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference, taking place November 8-10, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati., OH.

This conference is aimed at promoting both the benefits and implementation of MTConnect, as well as showcasing commercially available products that utilize the standard. Attendees who could benefit from this important event include end users, equipment suppliers, software developers, distributors, independent software vendors, integrators, and consultants.

The conference will include both a business and a technical track to address the differing needs of all attendees. While the technical track will focus on the “hands-on” side of implementing and using MTConnect, the business track will emphasize the increased productivity and ROI that the standard can enable.

"This conference will be a can't-miss event for all things related to MTConnect and improving manufacturing productivity,” says Dave Edstrom, president and chairman of the MTConnect Institute. “The technical tracks will include hands-on labs led by subject matter experts to allow software developers to learn about MTConnect from both the machine side, as well as the application level.

“Meanwhile, the business tracks will feature engaging discussions from industry thought leaders that will allow everyone, from the plant floor to the CEO's office, to understand how MTConnect improves productivity throughout the plant.”

To learn more about this event, as well as MTConnect, visit www.MTConnect.org.