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Titanium poised for spinal disc move as orders pile up
Memphis medical technology manufacturer Medtronic Sofamor
Danek, has ordered production quantities of PM titanium composites
for artificial spinal discs from Dynamet Technology of Burlington,
Massachussetts. The discs are made from Dynamet's proprietary
titanium matrix composite CermeTi material.
The material is a composite of hard ceramic in a ductile
titanium matrix. Medtronic is using the material for artificial
cervical discs, currently undergoing US investigational trials.
Dynamet claims that the composite in a breakthrough in advanced
materials that significantly improves wear resistance over
stainless steel while offering the desirable imaging characteristics
of titanium. Under a National Institutes of Health-funded
study, the company is developing additional enhanced matrix
composites for lumbar spinal implants.
Total disc replacement is being developed as an alternative
to spinal fusion, says Stanley Abkowitz, president. It is
less invasive, reduces recovery time, and improves mobility.
US metal injection moulding concern FloMet, based in Deland,
Florida., is doubling its injection moulding machine capacity
to accommodate new business coming on stream, mostly from
medical markets. The company expects sales will triple in
fiscal 2006. According to an article in the Daytona Beach
News-Journal, FloMet's sales of MIM parts have almost doubled
to $10 million, and will grow 3 times in fiscal 2006. "We
will add 10 injection moulding machines to handle the new
business," says Arlan J. Clayton, president. The company
operates from a 45,000 sq. ft. building and has 116 employees.
Clayton hopes to hire 20 additional workers but says it has
been difficult finding new employees.
·Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory say they have developed a new
method for powder injection moulding of titanium and similar
materials to form components for advanced engineering applications.
Titanium offers high specific strength and excellent corrosion
resistance, making it ideally suited to the automotive, aerospace,
chemical production and biomedical equipment industries. However,
use of injection moulded titanium components has been severely
limited by alloy impurities directly attributable to the current
process. The PNNL method overcomes these problems, says the
team, allowing powder injection moulding to be readily used
in preparing components from alloys of titanium, tungsten,
and niobium, as well as other reactive refractory materials.
The key to the PNNL process is a proprietary binder that is
cleanly removed during sintering and leaves no impurities
that can cause degradation in material properties. In addition,
the porosity of components produced by the PNNL process can
be tailored for a variety of specialised applications, including
the design of self-lubricating parts and biomedical implants.
This is accomplished by including easily removed fugitive
phases in the powder mixture and by controlling the subsequent
debinding and sintering heat treatments. PNNL is seeking collaborators
or partners interested in pursuing development of the powder
injection molding technology for commercial applications.
Business inquiries should be directed to Eric Lund at (509)
375-3764 or eric.lund@pnl.gov.
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