Device processing solutions for the medical device industry

        In recent years, medical device stampings have shown a dynamic growth trend, and medical device manufacturers are also continuously looking for better turning centers and tools to enhance their competitive advantage. This has also become an important channel for the growth of the tool industry. Yichi Metal saw this huge development prospect and invested a lot of manpower and material resources to develop special tools for medical device processing. Yichi Metal has set up a special medical device research and development department. There are professional engineers engaged in the design of solutions. They have rich experience and specialize in the research of medical tool processing tools.

　　 Titanium alloy materials that are difficult to process
　　90% of medical device implant parts are made of Ti6Al4V titanium alloy, which is derived from light weight, high strength and high biocompatibility. Titanium alloy 6AL-4V has become the most commonly used material for medical implant devices. Titanium alloy 6AL-4V is commonly used in the manufacture of hip joints, bone screws, knee joints, bone plates, dental implants, and spine connecting elements.
　　 Titanium alloy has the characteristics of work hardening. During the machining process, the shear angle is large, the chip produced is thin, and a relatively small contact area is formed on the tool. In addition, the high cutting force during the machining process, combined with the frictional force when the chips are flowing, will comprehensively cause the cutting tool to have excessively high cutting heat. The poor thermal conductivity of titanium alloy prevents the cutting heat from being conducted quickly. Therefore, a large amount of cutting heat is concentrated on the cutting edge and the tool surface. High cutting force and cutting heat will cause the generation of crescent pits and rapid tool failure.
The relatively low modulus of elasticity makes titanium alloys more elastic than steel. Therefore, excessive cutting force should be avoided to ensure that the rebound of the workpiece is small. Thin-walled parts have a tendency to deform under tool pressure, causing tremor, friction and even tolerance problems. The key to solving the problem is to ensure the rigidity of the entire system. It is very necessary to use tools with sharp cutting edges and correct geometry. In addition, titanium alloys have a tendency to alloy with cutting tools at high temperatures, and their chips tend to be welded to the tool surface.

　　Reliable and compact machine tool fixture
　　Medical device processing equipment needs to be able to process small and complex parts made of difficult-to-machine materials (such as titanium alloys or stainless steel) with high precision requirements, such as the replacement of bones and joints, which is quite complicated. Due to the poor cutting performance of the material being processed, the blank is usually bar stock-this means that a large amount of metal needs to be removed. Therefore, a part of the part is cast into a shape close to the finished product, but this also increases the trouble-the need to manufacture complex and expensive fixtures. Another factor that increases processing complexity is the narrow tolerance range.
　　 Medical equipment parts, workpiece materials, processing accuracy, surface finish and other requirements are high, which requires high reliability of the processing system. As a result, extremely high demands are placed on machine tools, fixtures, tools, CAM software, etc. Workpieces are usually processed on advanced medical equipment processing equipment such as Swiss automatic lathes, multi-spindle machine tools and rotary tables. The characteristics of these machine tools are mostly very small size and very compact structure.
　　The characteristics and requirements of medical device parts processing undoubtedly promoted the development of processing technology and solutions to improve the competitiveness and production efficiency of small and medium-sized medical device processing.

       Stable and efficient tool
　　 Generally speaking, the medical device industry is different from other mechanical processing industries in three points:
First, the requirements for machine tools are relatively high. Advanced medical equipment processing equipment such as Swiss automatic lathes, multi-spindle machine tools and rotary tables are completely different from the usual processing centers and lathes. Their size is very small and the structure is very compact. To meet such requirements, the structure of the tool also needs to have a special design, the size of the tool needs to be small, and the rigidity of the tool must also be guaranteed. Like the ISCAR SWISSCUT series, which is specifically designed for cam-type machine tools, it reduces the problem of interference in small processing areas and can easily replace the blades from both sides of the arbor. The high-precision blades and solid tool holder design ensure high Repeatability. MINCUT is the latest tool developed by Iscar. It can be used for both turning and milling. The small size tool has high rigidity and can be applied to multi-spindle machine tools or machining centers.
　　 The second point is that high processing efficiency is required. For medical devices, the most important thing is the processing efficiency, that is, the processing cycle. It is required that the blade can be replaced in the shortest time. Iscar's MULTI-MASTER Transformers series can be replaced with different milling heads in just a few seconds. The concept of quick-change tool heads has a good guarantee for the machining cycle. In addition, the tool life is required to be as stable and as long as possible. High-quality cutting tools should be used as much as possible, with the overall coordination of coating, cutting edge, chip breaker and tool structure. In this way, the machine can be guaranteed to run 24 hours, and can compete with other competitors in the market with very high production efficiency, so as to obtain a competitive advantage.
　　 Third, from the workpiece itself, it is very different from other mechanical parts. Medical devices implanted into the human body firstly require very good surface finish, high accuracy, and no deviations. This requires the tool to meet the high processing requirements from the design of the blade structure to the design of the blade coating. In addition, it also includes the repeated positioning accuracy of the blade, which can not ignore the high quality requirements while ensuring the improvement of efficiency.

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