To function properly and last for a long time in the human body, orthopaedic implants require precisely defined finishes on different surface areas. For the targeted surface finishing of femur components at its new high-tech plant in Penang, Malaysia, Smith+Nephew is utilising two manufacturing cells, each containing three R 6/1000 SF drag finishers from Rösler.

The drag finishers undertake process stages that include pre-grinding with ceramic media, pre-polishing using plastic media and dry polishing with a specially prepared organic polishing medium. To prevent any disruptions of the surface finishing operation, all drag finishers are suitable for running the dry polishing process. Furthermore, four of the six drag finishers are suitable for the pre-grinding and pre-polishing as well as the dry polishing operation.

The drag finishers consist of a processing bowl with a diameter of 1000 mm and a carousel with six rotary spindles. These are equipped with specially designed workpiece fixtures, to which the femur components are mounted.

“We’re now able to process 18 femur components in one single batch compared with only 12 the past,” says Jürgen Preiser, senior manufacturing engineer at the plant. “This increases our throughput by around 50%, a truly remarkable productivity boost.”

The plant also has two fully automatic Z1000 centrifuges, equipped with the ‘Advanced’ digital process water management system from Rösler Smart Solutions, which ensure that the process water is reliably and efficiently cleaned and recycled. Another indispensable contribution towards the stability of the finishing operation is the continuous monitoring and classification of the grinding and pre-polishing media.
For further information www.rosler.com

As well as showcasing two new-to-the-UK Walter Helitronic tool grinders – the Helitronic Mini Plus and the Helitronic G 200 – Walter Ewag UK’s open house (Warwick, June 27-29) will host daily series of workshops/demonstrations of some of Walter’s money-saving and user-friendly technologies for fast and effective tool production and regrinding, as well as inspection.

The three-day event will highlight: rewards of integrated measuring; benefits of non-contact laser contour checking; remote service; and how Helitronic Tool Studio software can simplify and speed up grinding/erosion times.

Walter heralded a step change in the fully automatic measurement and digitisation of tools when it launched the Walter 3D laser sensor, which enables the Walter Helicheck Pro and Plus tool measurement machines to scan with four times the resolution than previously possible and to process that data four times faster.

Suitable for inspecting high-performance tools where cutting edge geometry, pitch and spiral pitch vary widely, the 3D sensor can replace two separate machines traditionally used for measuring such tools – perhaps a combination of conventional and laser checking. Easily and quickly programmed using wizard routines, with resulting short set-up times, the 3D sensor effectively ‘visualises’ the workpiece as a point cloud (in differing formats) and enables various measurements to be undertaken on the 3D image.

When the resulting image is ‘placed’ on the tool’s three-dimensional design drawings, or a master part, any deviations are clearly visible (via the integrated 3D Viewer) as 3D comparisons of point cloud and target model, including surface reconstruction.
The result is that tool measurement has never been more accurate or faster, reports the company.
To register call Phil Morris on 01926 485047, 07714 826832