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About Medical Stampings
Medical stampings are metal stamped parts created specifically
for use in the medical industry. Stamped medical equipment is commonly
created from stainless steel, titanium and other specialty materials
that give finished devices strength, light weight and other desirable
physical properties. Surgical procedures are continually becoming less
and less invasive. As a result, the demand for smaller and smaller instruments
has grown. The complex and small nature of medical equipment has generally
made its manufacturing quite costly. The medical stamping industry has
been challenged to provide economical manufacturing processes.
Medical stamping is used for devices, such as orthopedic implants (plates,
couplers, rods, etc.), surgical instrument components, temperature sensor
components and instrument lamp holder housings. Other medical devices
that are available with medical stamping include super-sharp blades,
scissors and laparoscopic, endoscopic and arthroscopic minimally invasive
devices (MIDs). Tolerances can be as tight as 0.0005 of an inch. Many
of these medical devices are designed to be disposable. As a result,
less costly manufacturing processes that can produce large numbers of
products are called for. These needs are difficult to achieve with
some of the processes in current use.
Many of the MIDs require special, performance-enhancing features, such
as screw holes and coined edges. These features are added in secondary
processes. However, each necessary secondary process adds to the overall
cost. Accuracy is also affected with these processes, as unclamping the
device and moving it to another machine increases the likelihood for human
error. Multifunctional machines are becoming more prominent in the medical
stamping industry. Some machines are capable of drilling small holes,
trepanning and milling the blade, all without unclamping and moving the
device, allowing for consistency in quality. CNC
machining is a common metal stamping method that could figure prominently
in the future production of MIDs.
Metal stamping of medical devices is a fairly new concept. Continuous
drawing processes have been a popular choice for producing medical devices.
Other traditional solutions include assembling components from simpler
individual parts or putting the piece through several different stages
of machining operations. However, these processes are slow, more expensive
and require more secondary processes. For example, one company was using
a continuous draw process to make disposable endoscopic tubes. This process
could only produce 300 parts per hour, as opposed to the rate of 60 parts
per minute that was possible with metal stamping.
Featured
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http://www2.thefabricator.com/Articles/Stamping_Article.cfm?ID=780
Types
- (http://deepdrawn.metalstamper.net)
converts flat sheet metal into three-dimensional shapes—including
cylindrical, shell-like, cup-like, rectangular and square shapes—whose
lengths (depths) exceed the radius of the part. As the flat metal moves
over the die, the metal blank is restrained on either side of the die
opening by a blankholder; the punch then pushes the secured blank into
the die cavity, creating the desired shape.
- (http://electronic.metalstamper.net)
are metal stamped electronic components.
- (http://fourslide.metalstamper.net)
is a specialized metal stamping process that allows fourslides to produce
complex stamped parts from strips and wires with multiple bends and
twists,
as well as parts requiring bends greater than 90°. During fourslide
forming, sliding tools, regulated by cams, glide into the metal blank
from four directions at right angles to one another, bending the metal
around a vertical mandrel.
- (http://progressive.metalstamper.net)
utilizes several workstations, unlike the usual single workstation,
through which the sheet metal sequentially moves to complete multiple
operations of the stamping process.
- (http://shortrun.metalstamper.net)
produces between five and ten thousand pieces, and the cost of the
dies themselves
is greater than the cost of the parts produced. Labor costs are higher
per piece, materials are more costly, setup time is greater and other
cost factors are higher in short run stamping than conventional stamping,
because of the greater number of operations involved.
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