Zone: Medical Machining

OVERVIEW: Medical Machining refers to all of the CNC machining related to surgical implants, orthotic devices and medical instruments. Various medical parts involve various challenges, but certain machining challenges in particular are common among medical parts. They include: ■ Small-scale machining or micromachining, because implanted devices often consist of very tiny components ■ Machining titanium, a material often used in medical devices because of its non-reactivity with the body ■ Machining plastics, because certain plastics also have this advantage ■ Custom machining, because some medical components can only be machined to specifications tailored to a particular patient’s body ■ Efficient small-batch machining, because new medical devices are developed quickly and refined through many iterations, making it necessary for machine shops to responsively provide prototype parts Medical Machining tends to be almost exclusively outsourced machining, with very little machining ever done by the OEM developing and marketing the medical device or product. This means that one additional challenge for shops that wish to participate in this market is to build, advance and maintain relationships with medical-industry customers in need of machining work.

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Featured Zone Content

December 2011 - Production Machining

Manufacturing Medical Devices for Today and Tomorrow

The pace of change in medical device design and manufacturing is rapid and is fueling demand for machine tool capability that not only reduces cost per piece today, but can open doors to producing new types of parts in the future....MORE

April 2013 - Production Machining

Survey Shows Positive Outlook on North American Manufacturing

Chris Felix

MFG.com recently released the results of its MFGWatch survey targeting 8,840 sourcing professionals throughout North America. The results indicate that 2013 is going to be a year of growth. ...MORE

January 2013 - Modern Machine Shop

The Big Step Up

Peter Zelinski

A small shop added two new machines, each of which is more advanced than any of the previous machine tools the company has used. One of the co-owners committed to the work of bringing both of these machines fully into service. Here is the shop’s experience so far. ...MORE

November 2012 - Modern Machine Shop

Video: Moving Section Made in One Piece

Peter Zelinski

The cover of our latest Additive Manufacturing supplement shows an articulating section that used to require assembly of many metal links, until additive manufacturing made it possible to produce this moving section in one piece. ...MORE

October 2012 - Modern Machine Shop

Movable Components, No Assembly Required

Peter Zelinski

A medical device maker produces a 13-piece articulating section with zero assembly work, thanks to DMLS’s ability to make the free-moving section as one complete piece. ...MORE

August 2012 - Modern Machine Shop

Shop's Success Turns on Swiss-type Technology

Matt Danford

During the past few decades, the Swiss-type lathe has evolved from a niche product to a go-to platform for done-in-one production of small precision parts. This shop has evolved right along with it. ...MORE

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