CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
4 February 2010
Implementation Investments
Delcam’s PartMaker CAM Helps Orthopaedics Firm in the Philippines
Delcam’s PartMaker CAM software is helping Orthopaedic International Inc., a medical manufacturer in the Philippines, to achieve its ambition of becoming a leading orthopaedic manufacturer in the Asia-Pacific region. The software, which is Delcam’s dedicated system for turn-mill machines and Swiss-type lathes, is both boosting the productivity and maximising the part quality from the company’s Mazak Integrex machine.
Orthopaedic International was founded by orthopaedic surgeon Ramon B. Gustilo, MD, after he had made numerous trips to South-East Asia to lecture and perform surgery. He found that the level of orthopaedic supplies and services in many parts of Southeast Asia was inadequate. Often, the implants and equipment available were of questionable quality or priced out of reach of the majority of the local population. To address the problem, he founded his company to provide higher quality, more affordable equipment to the region. OII is now one of the largest distributors of orthopaedic products in the Philippines, as well as being the only manufacturer in the country with its own research and development department.
“We have been using PartMaker software to program our Mazak Integrex machine for the past two years,” said CNC Leadman, Enrico Nada. “This machine is a multi-axis lathe with additional milling functions. Manual programming can be used for simple components but, for complex parts like our implants and medical devices, PartMaker software is essential.”
“All of our orthopaedic implants and medical devices must be made to the highest levels of precision and accuracy,” continued Mr. Nada. “The materials that we use are mainly titanium and stainless steel, which are both difficult to machine. In addition, titanium is very expensive so we need to be extremely careful to eliminate errors and minimise the number of rejected items. To keep costs down, we need to reduce the time needed for machining and to minimise the use of multiple set-ups. PartMaker is a big help in all these areas.”
“As CNC Leadman, I am responsible for producing all the NC programs for our Integrex. With PartMaker, this is easier, more accurate and much faster than manual programming,” claimed Mr. Nada. “I have no problem in importing solid models from our design software and I can define the toolpaths directly from the solid models.”
“I can do simulations to check the NC programs before transferring them to the machine, both to confirm that the part that will be produced matches the CAD model and to guard against any collisions on the machine. Even though this is the first time I have operated a multi-axis, turn-mill machine, thanks to PartMaker, I am confident that I am able to maximise its capabilities,” he conclude
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