State of the Art Development Center for Spinal Products

Tecomet, a leading contract manufacturer for the medical device and aerospace/defense industries announced today the opening of a new development center for spinal implants at its headquarters in Wilmington, MA.

In response to the fast growing spine market which totaled $7.1 billion in worldwide revenue in 2009 (an 11% increase over 2008 according to the 2009 ORTHOWORLD Annual Report), and increasing interest from new and existing clients, Tecomet has dedicated the required space, capital equipment and technical resources to create a spine products development center. This new center will assist both large existing spinal implant customers as well as new start-up companies with the development and manufacturing of their spinal products.

The company recently renovated a 2,500 square foot area within its Wilmington, MA facility to locate the new development center. In addition to purchasing and installing three new high speed CNC precision machining centers dedicated to spinal implant manufacturing, Tecomet has recently hired a Manufacturing Engineer with extensive CNC programming experience to join the Wilmington Operations team and take responsibility for the new equipment.

The Tecomet sales force will continue to manage their various customer accounts, but in order to bring greater focus to spinal opportunities, Tecomet has promoted Alice Higdon to the new position of Business Development Specialist. Alice has been with Tecomet for over five years and has prior spinal implant sales experience from her years with Synthes Spine. She will concentrate on managing the spinal accounts. In addition, Tecomet recently filled a new Spinal Project Engineer position specifically to help accelerate customers' time to market from product concept development to production and market launch.

"During the past couple of years the markets for spinal and extremity implants have grown faster than the markets for other reconstructive implants, making it an attractive segment to focus on," commented Art Burghouwt, Director of Business Development at Tecomet and newly appointed leader of the company's Spinal business. "Several existing orthopedic customers that have spine and extremity divisions, as well as newly established implant companies, have expressed a need for expertise in the development and manufacturing of unique and intricate implants. These companies do not always have their own internal manufacturing capabilities and are looking to outsource the work to Tecomet based on our extensive experience and proven success in manufacturing other high performance medical implants."

As an innovator in manufacturing intricate metal implants, Tecomet's precision CNC machining, photochemical etching, and net shape forging capabilities, combined with its established leadership in supplying hip, knee, trauma and CMF implants, place it in a prime position to help companies develop their spinal implants.

"We are fortunate in that we have developed deep rooted relationships and are currently an approved supplier to a number of leading orthopedic companies. Additionally, Tecomet has developed unique patented technologies, specifically Tecotex® and Trabeculite(TM), that will be differentiators when applied to spinal implants," added Burghouwt.

Tecomet's Tecotex® is a novel photochemical etching process that creates a computer generated repeatable and very accurately positioned surface texture on either 2 or 3-dimensional surfaces. It is intended to improve primary fixation, enhance bone on-growth, provide superior grip, and is ideal for small, intricate spinal and extremity implants. Trabeculite(TM) is Tecomet's proprietary porous titanium material consisting of multiple stack laminated layers of etched titanium with engineered features and properties. Trabeculite permits an infinite range of 3D implant designs to suit specific porosity, strength, and in-growth requirements.

As a result of Tecomet's broad experience in developing and delivering high performance, high quality metal components for medical implants, the company has been instrumental in solving extreme challenges for its customers' critical, tight tolerance applications and exceeding their demands for quality, time to market, and cost. It is expected that Tecomet will apply these proven skills and experiences, together with the newly dedicated equipment, space and technical resources of the Spine Center, to make a positive contribution to the exciting and fast growing spinal and extremity implant markets.

For more information visit the company's new website at www.tecomet.com or contact Art Burghouwt, Director of Business Development at Tecomet via phone 401-474-6379 or email art.burghouwt@tecomet.com.