Medical Device Manufacturing - Case Studies
Medical Implants are currently in great demand with manufacturers being asked for ever higher standards of surface finish and profile accuracy. Kemet International Ltd have spent many years developing, perfecting and automating Precision Surface Finishing Processes, specifically for the Medical Industry. All process development work for customers is being carried out free-of-charge.
The Kemet Process Development Laboratories have been successful in developing Special Purpose Polishing Machines for a wide range of Medical Implants. Two of the most recent being the Kemet Ball Polishing Machine and the Kemet Tibial Polishing Cell.
Polishing Orthopedic Medical Implants - Hip Cups
The Kemet Ball Polishing Machine can polish cups and balls (heads), for Hip Joints, to a mirror finish with a roundness accuracy of 3 microns. The simple 2 stage process is both reliable and repeatable. The machine can process all joint sizes and materials up to 100mm diameter. It can also easily be adapted for other round parts.
Test Requirements: To process unique style hip cups
Component/Material: Hip cups
Before Polishing Orthopedic Hip Cup
After Polishing Orthopedic Hip Cup
Polishing Tibials
The Kemet Tibial Polishing Cell has been specifically developed for finishing large production quantities of replacement Knee parts, such as Tibial Trays. A typical Cell contains Kemet Smoothing, Polishing and Cleaning Systems. It is able to finish to a mirror polish component parts whilst maintaining the precise profile needed.
Current buffing processes used by Knee Joint and Hip Joint Manufacturers produce an uneven mirror polish. The Kemet Polishing System produces a geometrically and technically perfect flat mirror polish.
The Kemet process has transformed the way Tibials are polished worldwide. A Kemet 36 system will produce 400 parts per shift using only 2 operators. When we first entered this market each Tibial was hand finished on a polishing mop. This limited the throughput, and had health and safety implications where operators were injured mainly due to repetitive strain injuries.
Test Requirements: To mirror polish a tibial using a Kemet CMP process.
Component/Material: Tibial pieces (Cobalt Chrome)
Before Polishing Tibial Implant
After Polishing Tibial Implant
Polishing Glenosphere
Test Requirements: To produce a surface finish better than 0.05Ra on Medical components.
Component/Material: Glenospheres
Machine: Ball Lapping/Polishing Machine
Before Polishing Glenosphere
