Med-Tech Innovation University News
Advanced manufacturing at Sheffield for a high quality finish
Tailor made implants are closer to reality, following the installation of a state of the art grinding machine at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing. The Profimat MC607, five- axis CNC grinding machine, made by Blohm Jung, has been installed at the AMRC Design Prototyping and Testing Centre.
One of the roles of the moving column grinding machine is to enable researchers to increase their understanding of how materials behave during grinding. Future plans include using the grinder to create a high quality finish on artificial knee joints,
made from cobalt-chrome powder using 3D printing technology.
3D printing is one area of research being investigated by the newly established Medical AMRC, which is on the same site as the AMRC. “The big advantage is the joint is bespoke, so you are replacing like for like and 3D printing saves on material, so there is the potential to reduce weight,” said Dr Andy Bell, from the AMRC Design and Prototyping Group. “However, the surface isn’t of a high enough quality for components used in a replacement joint, so it has to be very, very highly
AMRC Design Prototyping and Testing Centre’s Senior Project Manager Dr Andy Bell watches machine operator Lee Moore mount a grinding wheel on the grinding machine
finished, which is where the grinder comes in.” The CNC grinder can produce highly complex components without the need for profiled grinding wheels. Its 24-position tool magazine can hold mills, drills and other cutters, as well as grinding wheels up to 400 mm in diameter and 100 mm wide. That allows the number of separate machining operations to be reduced, often to just one, which lowers manufacturing costs and, when combined with the eight tonne machine’s increased rigidity, increases accuracy.
www.amrc.co.uk
Load bearing bone growth materials
Jordan Conway, a scientist from Aberdeen, is developing a new material to deliver rapid and successful bone repair, replacing the need to harvest the patient’s own bone, or use cadaver tissue.
Jordan Conway (photo supplied by University of Aberdeen)
www.med-techinnovation.com
University of Aberdeen spin-out, Sirakoss, produces MaxSi Graft synthetic bone graft granules and putty. The granules can be mixed with bone marrow aspirate or blood and are then used in spinal, trauma and dental applications. Because this material is biologically similar to bone, the body recognises it and stimulates its own repair processes to rapidly and effectively replace the graft material with new bone. These products are for use in non-load bearing applications. Conway, a third of the way through his PhD at the University, is now working on a formula for stronger product capability. He is combining the MaxSi formula with polymers to produce a material that has the same bone forming feature as MaxSi, but with a load bearing ability. The aim is for the material to be strong enough to create a resorbable stand-alone device such as a spinal cage; many of these devices are currently fabricated from titanium or non-resorbable materials. Conway has started to produce some prototype composites and is set to finalise the composition on the composites and then move on to testing.
www.abdn.ac.uk
September/October 2014 ¦ 05
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