Medical
sector fi t & well
Tecomet employs Citizen slidinghead
machinery to support 24/7
manufacture of medical components
All areas of manufacturing technology infl uence the medical sector, including workholding, cutting tools,
machine tools and 3D printers, as Steed Webzell reveals
When Tecomet, a manufacturer of
products and services for the
medical device sector, needed a
secure and exible workholding solution for
its machine shop, the company turned to
Hainbuch (https://is.gd/buzoru) and its
Manok stationary clamping system.
At the company’s Shef eld facility, where
component precision, quality and surface
nishes are critical, Hainbuch provided its
most suitable and exible solution: a 65 mm
Manok stationary chuck that was duly tted
to the company’s DMG DMU 50 machining
centre.
Says product manager Stephen Jackson:
“Previously, we held the job in a two-jaw
chuck, but this presented issues with
vibration and positional accuracy. So, we
opted for the Manok 65 from Hainbuch and
it solved a lot of problems. The positional
accuracy is spot-on and there are no more
scratches or issues with surface nish.
Furthermore, it has saved a lot of reworking
and secondary nishing.
“The rigidity of the Manok has improved
tool life dramatically and reduced tooling
costs,” he continues. “In addition, we’ve
been able to push the tools harder and run
the machines faster, which has improved
our cycle times while reducing tool
consumption. On a current femoral knee job,
we look to maintain a precision level of
±10 micron. One key point is that we have
numerous 5-axis machining centres on-site
and we can interchange the Hainbuch
system, easily placing it on another machine
if necessary. It’s simple, quick and easy to
use, and the support from Hainbuch has
been very good.”
SUCCESS SPURS FURTHER INVESTMENT
Following the success of the Manok,
Tecomet purchased a pneumatic xture
plate with six Hydrok 42 mm collet chucks
from Hainbuch. Adds Jackson: “We are using
this system for the production of a medical
tibial tray, which is a forging with a small
amount of machining. To clamp the forging,
we have a standard collet that we machined
relative to the xture. Essentially, we
produced a pocket out of the collet to suit
the forging. As it’s a 3D shape, this keeps it
accurate and we can machine it in-house. In
turn, we can keep lead times down and react
quickly to customer demands. The Hydrok
system clamps six parts in a single set-up.”
Cutting tools are equally important when
it comes to machining medical components,
as instanced by Eberle GmbH, a
manufacturer of surgical instruments based
in Wurmberg, Germany. For many years,
cutting tool specialist Arno (https://is.gd/
MEDICAL SECTOR PRODUCTIVITY INJECTION
uvuyax) has been a reliable partner,
servicing the requirements of Eberle with
cutting tools and a tool management
system.
“We need the highest precision and best
surface qualities for our surgical
instruments,” emphasises Bernd Amann,
technical manager at Eberle, where
instruments include shaver blades for
arthroscopies, urological operations and ENT
(ear, nose and throat) procedures.
The company uses nine different Arno
VHM milling cutters, eight different SA
grooving tools, together with the AKB drilling
system and 11 types of highly positive
indexable inserts.
“In particular, the highly positive
indexable inserts impress us time and
again, since they produce extremely good
surface nishes and provide long operational
life,” Amann says. “The nish quality is so
high that some downstream process steps
are no longer necessary.”
He also relies on SA modules from Arno
for grooving work. Among the modules are
those with inserts chamfered at 15° for
grooving thin-walled tubes. These tubes are
used in shaver blades for ENT operations.
The sturdy, narrow grooving blades that Arno
offers provide cutting depths of 10 to
70 mm, and grooving widths of 1.5 to 8 mm.
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