20 Feb CNC Machining and its Role in the Global Healthcare Industry
The medical industry is undergoing radical change. Gone are the days when the only way to get a diagnosis was from a face-to-face consultation with a clinician. Today’s advanced tech is revolutionising care at every level.
From wearables that alert the user to a potential condition to customised equipment used during surgery, rehab, home care and patient monitoring, the use of technology to improve patient care is now an everyday occurrence. However, no matter what the location and use, all such technological devices share the same common features. They must be:
- Reliable: returning predictable data and offering wholly repeatable performance
- Safe: for both the patient, clinicians and other users/those in the vicinity
- Customisable: medical devices often need unique designs to be fit for purpose
The advances in CNC machining make it the primary manufacturing solution that encompasses these three requirements. In addition, cutting-edge breakthroughs mean parts can be easily and quickly prototyped and tested cost-effectively.
Bringing Speed and Efficiency to Medical Device Design
Tool machining used to be a laborious and expensive process. The advent of digital programming has revolutionised this. In partnership with technology, such as 3D printing and digital twins, CNC machining has upgraded the design and testing process dramatically.
The following defines why CNC machining offers the ideal solution for part creation as AI and machine learning are further integrated into medical devices.
- Rapid prototyping: All medical devices need to go through a rigorous design and testing programme. CNC machining is fast – production can be as little as a single day. From here, testing can easily be carried out and necessary tweaks actioned without great expense.
- Repeatable, precise design: Once finalised, the process creates highly dependable parts with minimal variation (typically less than five microns) is guaranteed, no matter how small or large the volume.
- Scalability: Whatever size the run – from the smallest, bespoke medical devices to large-scale requirements – the advantage of CNC machining is that it requires no hard tooling. This means that it’s as cost-effective to produce a single part as it is to make thousands or more. Therefore, volume can be scaled up if and when it becomes necessary.
- Versatility: The process can be utilised for virtually any raw material (barring plastics), meaning it’s suitable for most medical applications. These include steel medical tools, prosthetic components, surgical implants and much more.
Performance Optimisation and Integrated Certification
The CNC machining process continues to advance as manufacturers constantly seek methods of improvement. Linear drives that reduce friction and wear, hydrostatic guides that precisely apply lubrication and advanced temperature control all play a large role in optimising the machining process.
Its high accuracy also provides a recognised pathway that can be integrated into the necessary certifications that all medical devices must show. As marketplace designs continue to become more complex, so machining demands also increase. In the field of medical devices, no machine process offers the level of precision, flexibility and cost-effectiveness that CNC machining does.
Much as 3D printing has already been embraced and is now even used in situ in a variety of healthcare locations, the future of CNC machining may well follow a similar path. However, the need to work with a dedicated design team to produce prototypes through to the production of the final product means that – for the time being, at least – the process continues to be carried out in dedicated facilities.
Whether the same will apply in 20 years’ time remains to be seen. So watch this space…