Making it in medical: Examining this shop's healthy medical machining business shows that both medical components and medical customers require special care

摘要

"Can you machine natural coral?" That's one of the mote unusual questions asked recently of Tanya DiSalvo, operations manager of Criterion Tool & Die, a 22-per son precision job shop in Brook Park, Ohio, near Cleveland's Hopkins Airport. As a matter of fact, the shop doesn't machine coral-at least not for now-but it does machine titanium, Inconel, brass, aluminum, various stainless steels and a number of engineering plastics such as Vespel and Ultem. The shop machines these materials into complex components for medical implants and orthopedic instrumentation using a variety of milling and turning machines, including some eight-axis Swiss-type lathes and a turn/mill with B-axis capability.