Industry Zones

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.

Manufacturing Videos

Video of a Really Cool Bar (-Fed Machining Center)

Hard Milling Isn’t Just High Speed Machining

Featured Zone Content

June 2009

See The Tool's Value Instead Of Its Cost

By: Modern Machine Shop
This company is embracing high-performance tooling on its turning centers. The "sticker shock" is no reason not to do this. In one case, though, the shop found a way to limit the cost of the tool and increase productivity at the same time....MORE

December 2009

Qualifying for Medical Work: Advice from a da Vinci Shop

By:
Swiss shop with heavy medical experience shares how to get and keep medical customers. ...MORE

RELATED ZONES

Click to View More Related Zones

January 2012

Advancing Manufacturing, Tomorrow and Today

By: Peter Zelinski
A drilling solution improves the production of a component that is critical for correcting spinal disorders. Meanwhile, an apprenticeship program ensures that improvements like this one can continue into the future. ...MORE

December 2011

Manufacturing Medical Devices for Today and Tomorrow

By: Edited by: Chris Koepfer
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

December 2011

Wireless Ballbar Speeds Medical Machine Testing

By: Modern Machine Shop
The QC20-W wireless ballbar from Renishaw enables this precision-machined medical device manufacturer to perform faster, more convenient CNC machine capability tests and produce a representative measurement of volumetric positioning accuracy. ...MORE

September 2011

Tooling up for Micromachining

By: John Dotday
Choosing the right tools and matching them to the correct operations and process techniques for micromachining applications is critical to success in this burgeoning market. ...MORE

July 2011

CMM Outperforms Expectations

By: Modern Machine Shop
For this precision manufacturer, keeping inspections cost-effective required a system that could provide both high accuracy and reduced measuring times. The Prismo navigator CMM from Zeiss delivered both, along with additional, unexpected benefits. ...MORE

Search for machine tools by specs. Over 7500 models.

techspex machine tool selector

MMS ONLINE
Channel Partners