In the "Metal meets Medical" special show at the METAV 2014 – the international trade fair for manufacturing technology and automation, held in Düsseldorf from 11 to 15 March, more than 20 participants will be showcasing how production technology contributes towards more efficiency and more precision in medical technology manufacturing.
Ageing societies, higher disposable income, better medical care and at the same time the rising pressure on costs in the health care sector, these are the salient features of the business environment for medical technology companies. All these developments, however, promise one thing: the market for medical technology products remains an attractive one. It will continue to grow, and so will the concomitant challenges.
"In the field of medical technology, production operations are run with very different batch sizes", explains Simon Voit, Product Manager Medical Technology, Marketing, Control Systems for Machine Tools, at Dr. Johannes Heidenhain GmbH in Traunreut, Germany, identifying one of the tasks that daily confront manufacturers of medical technology. "Whereas in the field of dentistry the production of one-offs is the everyday norm, in the case of surgical instruments the sheer diversity of variants entails small batches. Hip and knee joints, by contrast, are manufactured in a cost-efficient process-oriented series production operation. Irrespective of the batch size involved, moreover, the regulatory requirements for NC programs are very stringent", adds Voit.
Heidenhain is one of more than 20 participants in the "Metal meets Medical" special show at the METAV 2014 – the international trade fair for manufacturing technology and automation, which will be held in Düsseldorf from 11 to 15 March. Under the motto of "smart solutions – more efficiency", they will be showcasing how production technology contributes towards more efficiency and more precision in medical technology manufacturing. Other companies participating include 3D Laser, AHC Oberflächentechnik, Agie Charmilles, Citizen, DMG Mori Seiki, Forecreu, Fuchs, Paul Horn, Renishaw Sandvik, Siemens, SolidCAM, Trumpf, Zapp, plus the research institutes FEP from Dresden and IFW, IW, IFUM and Laser Centre from Hanover.
"People are looking for more flexible, more efficient production solutions, while retaining a consistently high standard of quality", says Claus Bieder, Senior Manager Business Development at Siemens in Erlangen, Germany. In this context, efficiency primarily means speed. Faster translation of specific requirements into digital product prototypes, rapid creation of CNC programs, fast set-up and change-overs for the machines when handling different batch sizes, and not least expeditious machining are the salient challenges in the production process.
Other keynote topics are the materials used, like chromium-cobalt, stainless steels, ceramics, plastics or magnesium, some of which are less than easy to machine, stringent hygiene guidelines, maximised precision in the µm range, and coatings made of metal, plastics or ceramics, which at the same time have to be wafer-thin and nonetheless sturdy. The METAV will be showcasing solutions for this in Hall 15, covering the entire process chain, from the machine, the tools and the components all the way through to the metrological instrumentation for dental technology, implants, surgical instruments and mould construction.
Additive production processes expand the product portfolio in terms of medical technology
In addition, METAV 2014 will for the first time also be focusing on what are called additive processes, which are becoming progressively more important for industrial mass production operations and thus for manufacturing medical technology products as well. "Additive processes enable components with new functions to be created that could not be produced using conventional metal-cutting methods. Processes of this kind expand the options available for manufacturing components", is how Dr. Matthias Luik, Head of Research and Development at Paul Horn, Tübingen, Germany, describes the potential involved.
Within the framework of the alliance between the trade fair organisers Messe Erfurt and the METAV's organiser (German Machine Tool Builders' Association), the special show on medical technology will accordingly be expanded to include exhibitors from the additive production segment. Not only will additively manufactured medical products be showcased, such as implants, OP templates or prosthetics, but also the progress being made in deploying 3D layer-formers, reconstruction methods, (bio-)materials and how to machine them. In additive production processes, there is a huge potential for faster, more cost-efficient and more sustainable manufacturing in the field of medical technology.
