Medical & Healthcare

Tech-Etch specializes in the photo chemical etching of tungsten. Because tungsten is extremely dense, 71 percent heavier than lead, it is used in medical applications, including grids used to collimate and attenuate stray X-rays in CT scanners, as well as ID tags used in implanted medical devices.

Fives offers the Landis-Bryant RU2 Fuel MGMT grinder. This high-precision grinding technology incorporates a modular multiple-surface grinder with extended flexibility to grind most complex components for fuel systems, valve and drive trains, bearings, aerospace and medical applications.

Swiss ID burnishing tools by Elliott Tool Technologies are ideal for accurate sizing, low microfinishing and surface hardening of ID holes down to 4 mm. With the tool body completely inside the tool block, the new 5918 series features an adjustment knob which protrudes from the rear of the tool shank, thus allowing the burnishing tool size to be adjusted for diameter without removal from the tool block.

In many industries, such as medical and pharmaceutical technology and production, contamination and air purity is absolutely essential. Any contamination can have a damaging impact on products and processes, and incur a range of costs and loss of profits.

Value-added services shorten lead times and increase sales opportunities for parts manufacturers. The decision to bring traditionally outsourced services in-house can be an expensive and scary proposition—one with the potential to either transform a company or send it into bankruptcy. Yet that's exactly what many manufacturing companies do, and often they are pleased with the results.

Suhner introduces the Rotomax flexible-shaft machine, a unique unit with interchangeable hand pieces that allow a user the freedom to perform a variety of machining operations with a single machine. The Suhner Rotomax functions as an angle grinder, straight grinder, drum polisher, belt sander, tube polisher or die grinder, simply by changing the hand piece.

Dorner's new 2200 LPZ/Z-Frame conveyor comes with one or two pivot points and features an extremely low profile to fit under machinery or any other tight spots. The 2200 LPZ is Dorner's lowest profile Z-Frame conveyor and the first such offering in the newly redesigned 2200 series platform.

Tsudakoma has developed the new RDS series direct-drive rotary tables. This series utilizes Tsudakoma's proprietary direct-drive motor system, enabling the rotary table to achieve high speed and acceleration with no backlash.

Alicona is expanding its range of production-integrated measurement solutions. The producer of high-resolution optical 3D measurement systems is demonstrating how new automation software allows laboratory measurement systems to be automatically used as part of the production process.

The sales, engineering and executive staff at Doosan Machine Tools America hosted a festive open house recently, celebrating the company's recently expanded Technical Center in Pine Brook, N.J. The company welcomed valued customers and its North American distributor network.

I generally consider myself to be a positive person. However, these past few weeks have tested my resolve. It's not the roller-coaster daily life as a machine shop owner, but the stark reality of losing employees and friends to serious illness that's been especially hard to take. Thankfully, illness doesn't always mean death.

Say "EDM" and most manufacturing folks think mold, tool and die work. Yet sinker, wire and hole-popping EDMs are often employed in conjunction with, or as alternatives to, traditional part-making processes, such as milling and turning.