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.