Gildemeister Italiana estimated about 1000 Swiss-
style machines are sold in the US annually, with about 20% intended for medical applications. “Innovation taking place throughout the medical device community is moving at a staggering pace,” said John Murphy, vice president at Morris Group
potential to be the ultimate in customization. But the Swiss machine makers don’t see that as a threat and that it may have the possibility to send more medical business their way.
A Tsugami laser head in action. Sample parts are shown in the inset images.
Inc. (Windsor, CT), parent company of Tsugami/ Rem Sales, which distributes Tsugami LaserSwiss machines. “New products, which make the patient experience better, will continue to drive activity in this sector.” The medical market has seen increased customiza- tion. Makers of implants and devices have moved to producing products that more closely meet the needs of patients, rather than a one-size-fi ts-all approach. Executives of companies that produce Swiss-
style machines say they’re in a position to adapt to the change.
At Maurbeni Citizen-Cincom Inc. (Allendale, NJ), “If an orthopedic bone screw needs to be custom- ized, a Cincom machine that is already set up to run bone screws can be adjusted to make the customized part in as little as 10 minutes,” said Glen Crews, the company’s regional sales manager. “The fact that our machines can be changed over so rapidly has allowed them to be used in both an R&D capacity as well as high-volume production.” The medical market also is seen as a growth area
for additive manufacturing, where parts are printed layer by layer from a digital design. Additive has the
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AdvancedManufacturing.org
“In our opinion, subtractive manufacturing in the medical industry is here to stay,” Star CNC’s Bursac said. The company’s R&D concen- trates on “developing new technolo- gies to meet the industry’s need for the production of precision parts… This trend will continue.” “Additive manufacturing is still a time consuming process limited for the most part to manufacturing parts out of plastics or composites,” Crews of Maurbeni Citizen-Cincom said. “For the foreseeable future, subtrac- tive manufacturing will remain the primary manufacturing method for medical parts. Pricing pressure and volumes dictate that the most effi cient manufacturing methods be used.” Additive manufacturing is expanding as more metal materials
become available for 3D printing. Even so, “Addi- tive will only help expand the market,” said Murphy of Morris Group. “The fi nal product will still require machining operations before the part is usable.” What follows is a more detailed look at the com- panies and their strategies for the medical market.
‘Very Flexible’ In 2014, Tsugami/Rem Sales launched the Tsugami S206 LaserSwiss, a six-axis Swiss-type lathe with an in- tegrated laser cutting system. Last year, it came out with the S205 LaserSwiss, a fi ve-axis version. The company is expanding the Tsugami LaserSwiss lineup with three new models to be announced later this year. LaserSwiss is aimed specifi cally for machining medical parts. Murphy said it was in development for two years before its 2014 introduction. “This product has continued to go through
upgrades since then and is a very viable ... tool for today’s medical device manufacturers,” Murphy explained. “The R&D that has proven most benefi cial has been on the applications side of the machine tool. With a few years under our belt, we are able to
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