Further confirming the importance of the medical-device manufacturing sector is the fact that UK Trade & Investment has been announced as an official supporter of this year’s MEDTEC UK event. Moreover, UKTI will be hosting a special networking area for manufacturers that want to find out how the organisation can assist them in international markets.
UKTI chief executive Nick Baird said: “The UK has one of the world’s largest and most productive life-sciences economies, and the medical-technology sector alone generates a turnover of some £15 billion annually. British medical-technology firms exemplify how innovation and technology can change lives, and UKTI can help promote their potential to an international audience.”
Event director Chris Edwards adds: “MEDTEC UK has always been about showcasing the latest innovations in medical-device technology, but this year we also wanted to focus on helping ‘med-tech’ companies do business, both in the UK and abroad. We’ve created this special networking area to give manufacturers the chance to meet with UKTI representatives who can offer advice on topics such as overseas market entry, UK finance and funding, plus other UK institutions and bodies that could help bring their products to market. It has 2,200 staff and a presence in over 100 countries, and it can provide support via a range of services — including participation at selected trade fairs and outward missions.”
MEDTEC UK will also feature a series of Innovation Briefings designed to allow medical-device manufacturers to present innovations to intellectual-property experts, private-equity managers and potential partners. Furthermore, the conference programme will include industry-leading thinking on regulation, drug delivery, orthopaedic devices and surgical instrumentation, plus sessions on helping manufacturers do business in the UK and overseas. There will also be advice on tapping into the potential of the BRIC markets, as well as workshops covering additive manufacturing and collaborative out-sourcing.
Engineering aspects
Some of the country’s leading tool makers, sub-contract injection moulding companies and precision component manufacturers — plus market-leading laser marking technologies — will feature at this year’s MEDTEC UK, with the following engineering companies just a representative sample of those that will be exhibiting.
Boddingtons Plastics provides an injection moulding and component manufacturing service that incorporates development, design for manufacture, tool design and manufacture, industrialisation and volume supply. The technical team also manages sterilisation procedures and the production of prototype components. The company has ISO 13485 and 9001 quality systems, and offers cleanroom-based manufacture; it also produces and manages the technical files to obtain CE marking and FDA approval.
Carclo Technical Plastics has recently invested in additional all-electric injection moulding equipment to provide a dedicated moulding cell for point-of-care medical diagnostic applications. The company also undertakes two-shot moulding and optical cuvette moulding; it operates on a 24/7 basis and uses automated vision inspection. It also provides a packaging service.
Classic Industries has 40 years’ experience as a producer of medical injection-moulded products. The company, which offers design, manufacturing, assembly, packaging and logistics services, has facilities in the USA, Mexico, England and Shanghai. It employs more than 500 people.
Precision parts manufacturer Connecticut Spring & Stamping is a manufacturer of high-tolerance springs and metal stampings, as found in minimally invasive hand-held surgical devices, endoscopic clip appliers, suturing devices and staple removers. The company offers low-volume, short-run spring manufacturing, as well as higher-volume production and warehousing. It can also add critical CNC-machined features to complicated stampings.
Precision Moulds & Tools specialises in high-precision plastic injection moulding tools, and it is constantly investing in the latest technology for its ‘state of the art’ facilities in the UK and its sister plant in Sri Lanka. The company is recognised as a turn-key solutions provider offering a total service from design and production through to mould validation and moulded samples. Recent additions to its ‘armoury’ are: a CNC laser welder with auto wire feed for the fast and accurate repair of intricate cavity areas; and a CNC laser engraver that allows positive and negative forms to be accurately created.
Proto Labs delivers fully functional prototypes in ‘production intent’ materials, to dramatically cut the cost and time normally associated with product development and getting products to market. Its Protomold division delivers injection-moulded parts from moulds manufactured using high-speed CNC machining. Its Firstcut division satisfies the need for functional prototypes much earlier in the development cycle for quantities of 1-10 plus. It delivers prototypes in engineering-grade resins and aluminium.
Trumpf was the first company to introduce industrial diode end-pumped marking lasers, making the process fast, economical and reliable. Today, its systems are used throughout industry — and in the medical technology sector in particular — for tasks such as product labelling, traceability and plagiarism protection. With its constant high resolution, the Trumpf laser beam marks characters, images and data matrix codes with tempered colours in metal or by colour changes in plastic; and because the surface remains unchanged, sterilisation can be undertaken at high temperatures. The company will be demonstrating laser marking on a TruMark Station 1000 — its most compact laser workstation.
Focusing on integrated technology
Delegates to this year’s Siemens workshop session at MEDTEC UK will be able to learn how with Siemens’ integrated technology the entire process chain — from MRT or CT scan to completed personalised implant — can be mapped to ensure a highly efficient process with an integrated, fast and highly automated process flow.
Presented by Sabine Fietz (medical-device business manager at Siemens), the workshop will highlight: process safety from MRT/CT scan to personalised implant; automated segmentation of CT data; and efficient CNC manufacturing of personalised implants and instruments.
Over-engineered orthopaedic devices
Current designs of orthopaedic devices are over-engineered and not optimised for in-service life, and standard tests are not addressing the needs of patients, according to an industry-leading speaker at this year’s MEDTEC UK Conference. Dr Anne Roques, chief research and development engineer at Aurora Medical, will tell delegates that designs are over-engineered, sometimes at the expense of the implanted construct.
“Implant designs can be focused on passing tests and may therefore not be optimised for the in-service life or performance of the implant patient.” She will also point out that current standard test methodologies do not address the full loading spectrum and increased activities of the younger patient.
Her presentation will be supported by case study insights into: field failure analysis; impact loading in hip replacement; long-term performance, fatigue assessment (the effect of residual stresses), and bone remodelling. Her presentation is part of the MEDTEC UK Conference ‘Engineering perspectives in the design and development of orthopaedics devices’.
Meanwhile, professor Kwang Leong Choy from the University of Nottingham will be discussing: the progress and challenges in the eco-friendly and cost-effective processing of thin/thick films and nano structured coatings; emerging eco-friendly and non-vacuum coating manufacturing technologies; the process principles, characteristics and advantages of electrostatic spray-assisted vapour deposition (ESAVD) and aerosol-assisted ion deposition (AAID) — plus a comparison of ESAVD and AAID with other coating technologies; and the structure, coating performance, reliability, reproducibility, sustainability, throughput and cost of ESAVD and AAID.
For more details of MEDTEC UK, visit the Web site
(www.medtecuk.com).