Micromolding in Making Medical Equipment
February 21, 2017 | Terry Sharrer
Size matters in making minimally invasive surgical devices, and generally, the smaller the better. This piece describes the manufacturing methods of two companies—Accumold (Ankey, IA) and MTD Micro Molding (Chariton, MA)-which make products like aspheric lenses for endoscopes and bioabsorbable fixation tacks for hernia repairs. Making molds in the one or two micron range is an engineering feat in itself, and then forming a part with a material such as PEEK (polyether ether ketone), an organic semicrystalline thermoplastic, is both an art and a science. MORE
Image Credit: MTD Micro Molding