Company insight
The way ahead for life- changing partnerships
Swedish steel company Alleima, headquartered in Sandviken, became a standalone company in 2022 and has recently presented its first full-year annual report under its new name, which outlined the company’s success and all-time highs, including new sales records. Alleima has a clearly stated strategy that focuses on segments where demand is driven by global megatrends, and the medical segment is one. Successful launches of products continue to drive growth.
T
he long heritage of Alleima – 160 years and counting – and the expertise the company has developed gradually have given it a solid foundation. Its first year of being known by what is a new name, with its history in the Sandvik Group, has been an exciting time. In addition to developing the business successfully, Alleima also marketed its new brand and worked to strengthen its brand position and recognition. The company has also received several recent accolades, including recognition as a Career Company 2024 (a distinction for Swedish employers who offer unique career and development opportunities), a gold medal in the Grand Prix category of The Magnet Employer Branding Awards, and a silver medal from EcoVadis for its Sustainability Rating.
Technology leader
The mission of Alleima is to give its customers the absolute best in materials technology and invest heavily in R&D. It works together with long-term customers to move their products forward continually by advancing processes and applications through unique materials. For example, for more than 40 years Alleima has been at the forefront of developing modern duplex grades that are typically more than twice as strong as standard stainless steel, with superior corrosion resistance.
It also has over 100 years’ experience in making strip steel, which provides optimal toughness, edge retention, corrosion resistance, a fine-grain microstructure, and precision well suited to the challenging, intricate and delicate requirements of medical procedures, such as bone cutting, and ocular and cardiovascular incisions. Alleima has a fully integrated supply chain from melt to final product for over 900 alloys, where more than 200 are for the medical
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Precision manufacturing at the Alleima site in the south of Italy. Amongst other products, the base of the EMG needles line are made at this location.
segment. More can be made on request. While Alleima does not melt precious metals, it has excellent processing capabilities for these materials. At the production unit in Palm Coast, Florida, Alleima makes ultra-fine round wire in the range from 0.007–10mm (0.00027–0.394in) and ribbon wire thickness ranges from 0.013– 0.75mm (0.0005–0.03in). These fine wires are sold on spools or used in the in-house manufacturing of wire-based components for sensing or transmitting signals in medical devices, such as cochlear implants and heart failure monitoring devices, or for electrical stimulation in, for example, deep brain stimulation (DBS) devices.
In Switzerland, Alleima makes micro-tubes with outer diameters of 0.25–4mm (0.00984– 0.157in), inner diameters of 0.05–2.9mm (0.00197–0.114in), and wall thickness of 0.04–1.0mm (0.00157–0.04in). These tubes are used together with resistive fine wire in
manufacturing EMG needles to evaluate the health and function of muscles or nerves. This precision manufacturing is made at Alleima Calimera in the south of Italy. Processing nitinol is also one of the company’s new core capabilities since acquiring Endosmart in 2023. Grinding, braiding or shaping the smart and flexible material is carried out at Alleima Karlsruhe in southern Germany. Another core capability that Alleima has gained from acquisition is electroplating. In its new facility in Sonceboz, in the canton of Bern in Switzerland, Alleima is merging its two manufacturing sites into one larger later in 2024 to be able to meet the increased demand for plated parts in the medical segment, e-Mobility, and the luxury industry.
Alleima is also one of the experts in coating medical-grade wire. The right coating can make or break product design. Identifying the best coating is a balancing
Medical Device Developments /
www.nsmedicaldevices.com
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