What Customers Are Saying
"The emergence of new generations of stents generated the
need for an in-depth redesign of our manufacturing process
chain", says Dr.-Eng. Michael Giese, CEO of eucatech AG in
Rheinfelden, Germany, innovative manufacturer of medical technology
for interventional cardiology and radiology with a specific
focus on stent systems.
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Stents
- expandable metal grid structures used to stabilize weakened
blood vessels after removal of clogging coagulations -
are produced from thin walled tubes made of high quality
metal alloys such as stainless steel.
The intricate grid structures that are the prerequisite
for achieving impressive diameter expansion ratios, are
produced using precision laser cutting technology. |
"The laser cutting process marks the very start of the whole
process chain - and is at the same time crucial for its ultimate
result", says Eduard Fassbind, CEO of swisstec AG in Schaan
and Zürich (Switzerland), a company that has specialized in
the manufacture of high precision laser micro-machining systems
as customized turn-key solutions.
 |
The
company also manufactures a specialized tube cutting,
drilling and welding system, equipped with a diode-pumped
"redPower" fiber laser source from SPI with a power rating
of 50 watt.
The system is carefully tailored to fulfil all requirements
for high precision production of stents on an industrial
scale: Every component, starting from the sturdy all-granite
base, to the linear drive x-axis and the proven laser
forming/ focusing system, right down to the state-of-the
art IT control system, is designed for virtually maintenance
free 24/7 production. |
eucatech selected this machining system for its stent production,
because "Besides being extremely sturdy, the plants use diode
pumping technology", says Dr. Giese. The problem with the
prior generation machines using lamps, was the fact that,
apart from their rather limited life of some 2000 hours, their
drift influenced the characteristics of the laser beam, resulting
in unstable processing parameters. All too often, batches
with substandard or out-of-tolerance products resulted after
only a few hundred hours of service. Production then had to
be halted, only be resumed after the laser system had been
thoroughly readjusted.
As a contrast, the new diode-pumped lasers remain stable over
very long periods of time, allowing highly consistent processing
results. Downtimes are reduced 50%,and machine usability has
jumped to well above 90 %. The amount of out-of-tolerance
products is significantly reduced and the processing speed
is doubled.
"The new laser cutting system is just the first building block
having to interface with other inspection and treatment plants
that ultimately form a complete automated production chain",
explains Giese. Another key component is a fully automated
optical inspection station that is capable of performing an
unmanned 100% optical quality assessment of the inside and
outside geometry of stents with, a resolution of just 1 µm.
 |
"The
third building block is a high vacuum heat treatment unit",
says Michael Giese. This processing step is vital to ensure
the required mechanical properties of the stent material:
High plasticity in combination with mechanical strength,
defined expansion characteristics, and absolute reliability
with respect to breakage.
With this much at stake, just 'shopping' for a sophisticated
machining system was not enough: All parties involved
were called upon to team up in an ongoing, innovative
design process.
"This aspect played a key role when we selected Swiss
Tec to be the supplier for our laser equipment", reveals
Giese, adding that "This decision was based on mutual
trust, resulting from six years of experience with this
company". |
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