Global precision engineering company Renishaw plc (www.renishaw.com) has opened a new Healthcare Centre of Excellence at its Miskin site, near Cardiff.

Formally opened on 29 September by Carwyn Jones AM, First Minister of Wales, this provides a facility for the manufacture of custom medical devices, as well as education and training for the life sciences community.

It highlights the company’s continuing technology advances for the healthcare sector, including patient-specific implants, dentistry and neurosurgery.

It contains a ‘mock’ non-sterile operating theatre and facilities for education, training, workshops and lectures, plus a facility for the manufacture of Class 3 custom medical devices produced on Renishaw metal additive-manufacturing (3-D printing) machines.

Renishaw believes that it is extremely important for neurosurgeons to have a familiar and comfortable environment in which to practise using its latest technology.

In the ‘state of the art’ operating theatre, which is lead-lined to allow the use of X-rays, surgeons can be trained to perform highly complex stereotactic neurosurgery procedures using the Renishaw range of neurological products.

The theatre also includes video and audio technology that allows the live streaming of training to the adjacent lecture theatre — or to the neurosurgeon’s support team, which may be located in another country.

The close proximity of Renishaw’s manufacturing operations to the Centre is seen as being highly beneficial for collaboration between engineers and healthcare professionals, as they work together on current and future healthcare challenges.

A demonstration area within the Centre also showcases Renishaw’s full range of metrology and healthcare technologies, including Raman spectroscopy instruments, neurological products and therapies, dental scanners and frameworks, molecular diagnostics and additively manufactured implantable devices.