According to Gosiger’s David Cogswell, the common theme expressed by attendees of the 2013 Medical Design & Manufacturing Show West was a desire to improve or expand their manufacturing capabilities. “The people I spoke with were company owners, manufacturing engineers and other production people looking for better ways to make their products, and to expand their businesses.” This, of course, bodes well for both the manufacturing sector and the overall economy.

Although the MD&M West show is aimed at manufacturers of a wide variety of medical products including dental implants, prosthetics and orthopedic devices, there were also a surprising number of non-medical manufacturers present. There were many attendees from aerospace and avionics companies, along with those from telecommunications, irrigation systems and firearms companies.

Because many of these manufacturers are first and second tier suppliers, they tend to run a variety of parts through their operations. Naturally, due to the critical nature of medical products, they also require highly accurate CNC machines. That’s why many visitors expressed interest in the Nomura Swiss-style machines exhibited in the Gosiger booth. In addition to the heavy-duty materials and hands-on craftsmanship that provides the stability and repeatability necessary for highly accurate machining, Nomura machines have a number of features such as tool pre-setting and in-process program editing, that allow faster setups and quicker changeovers.

Another hot product was the iFP Kleen Power vacuum parts washer, in part due to strict government regulation of solvent-based parts cleaners. Unlike other systems, this parts washer cleans baskets of parts in a sealed chamber using hydrocarbons or modified alcohol-based solvents that are internally recycled through a distillation process, so the environment is protected and users save money by recapturing and reusing the cleaning solutions. Additionally manufacturers eliminate the need to dispose of spent solvents or aqueous cleaning solutions containing oil and other contaminants. Plus, with the addition of an optional automation system, multiple baskets of parts can be cleaned unattended.

As important as the environmentally-friendly benefits of the parts washers are, show attendees were also drawn to the system’s ability to thoroughly clean complex parts such as those with ID threads, blind holes and cross holes, by applying programmable spraying, immersion, submerged jets, ultrasonic and vapor cleaning methods either statically, or in conjunction with oscillation or rotation.

Now that MD&M 2013 is history, Gosiger product specialists and applications engineers are working with attendees to help them improve their manufacturing processes. If your goal is to expand or improve your medical or other parts manufacturing capabilities, the Gosiger team is ready to support you.