The company appoints a new medical business development director, invests in North American medical manufacturing.

Underscoring its commitment to the support of advanced medical manufacturing, GF Machining Solutions has established a Medical Center of Competency and has appointed a new Medical Business Development Manager, Donn Wuestenberg, to head its operations. The new center, scheduled to open later this year in Lincolnshire, Illinois, will provide medical manufacturers in North America with comprehensive applications support along with world-class production technologies that include precision milling, EDM, laser texturing, micromachining, and automation.

At the center, manufacturers will have access to the GF Machining Solutions sales and service as well as industry leading medical application support teams. With extensive experience in the manufacture of complex, high-precision parts, the company will provide strategies and technologies for improving the production of medical instruments, orthopedic and trauma implants, consumables, dental parts, packaging and more.

According to Wuestenberg, the Medical Center of Competency will provide the perfect environment for collaboration between GF Machining Solutions, its medical customers and key industry partners. “Together,” he says, “we can identify and focus our efforts on those transformational projects that will further advance the medical manufacturing industry sector. These collaborations will also help spur the development of new and refined machines and technologies that will keep North American medical manufacturers moving forward and competitive.”

Wuestenberg brings more than 20 years of manufacturing experience with a strong focus on working collaboratively with key technology partners to his new position at the center. He is a Master Electrician and Journeyman Industrial Electrician and possesses extensive expertise in plant production, project design, die/mold, and production machinery for medical parts.

To schedule a consultation with an expert at our medical Center of Competency, contact Donn directly.

The partnership builds on the two companies’ continued innovations in engineering solutions that advance musculoskeletal health.

FIGUR8 and the Quick Coupling Division of Parker Hannifin Corporation announced a partnership for the deployment of the MIT spin-off’s breakthrough musculoskeletal technology system in select Parker manufacturing facilities. Parker, a Fortune 250 global leader in motion and control technologies, provides precision-engineered solutions for a wide variety of industrial and aerospace markets.

With more than 54,000 team members and locations in 45 countries and more than 315 manufacturing sites globally, one of Parker’s primary goals is to continuously improve safety performance and achieve zero injuries across the organization. The partnership brings the next generation of accessible, objective musculoskeletal health assessment information to the workplace.

“More than 1.7 billion people suffer from musculoskeletal conditions, and work-related musculoskeletal problems are among the most prevalent of occupational disorders worldwide,” says Nan-Wei Gong, co-founder and CEO of FIGUR8. “Parker’s Quick Coupling Division is tackling this challenge head on by implementing solutions for the intervention and prevention of musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace. Parker brings a proactive approach to the management of employee safety, health and risk that reflects the company’s deep commitment to responsible operations.”

The partnership builds on the two companies’ continued innovations in engineering solutions that advance musculoskeletal health. Parker’s electroactive polymer (EAP) sensors and FlexSense sensing technology are helping revolutionize the measurement of human body movement.

“Safety is our highest priority, and we are deeply engaged in the continuous identification and implementation of solutions that create a safety-first workplace for team members,” says Jason Manning, manager of environmental, health & safety, Parker Quick Coupling Division. “With FIGUR8’s breakthrough musculoskeletal technology, we recognized an opportunity to further add to our range of safety-first initiatives – from equipment safety to employee health – to provide a safe and engaging work environment.”

FIGUR8’s technology is in deployments across major health systems, employers and government organizations nationwide to help reduce and prevent the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace. With the lack of codified, accurate and objective data for musculoskeletal conditions being one of the biggest industry challenges to date, FIGUR8’s ability to enable precision analytics has made its technology an indispensable tool (before MRI) to support the diagnostic and treatment decisions regarding musculoskeletal conditions.

FIGUR8’s advanced MSK assessment solution – developed over years of R&D by MIT engineers in collaboration with Mass General Brigham clinicians – enables a full musculoskeletal and orthopedic assessment to be conducted in minutes by anyone, anywhere, regardless of technical or clinical expertise. In less than 15 minutes, the FIGUR8 solution can deliver data on key musculoskeletal biomarkers – including range of motion, movement quality, strength, and functional mobility – in order to create an individualized and precise plan of care.

Limbitless solutions grows prosthetics business, increases in-house manufacturing with Tormach CNC mills and lathe.

In a design studio and manufacturing lab on the campus of the University of Central Florida, a small company is making a big difference in the lives of children who have limb differences.

Started in 2014 by a group of students at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, Limbitless Solutions designs and builds bionics for children who have need of a prosthetic arm. The company imagines a world where bionic arms are as common as glasses or braces in a child’s life.

Established as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Limbitless is a part of UCF. While the company has 5 full-time employees, it regularly has as many as 40 undergraduates from UCF working in engineering, design, production, and other roles. “Our connection with UCF is really valuable to us,” says Albert Manero, executive director at Limbitless. “It provides Limbitless with an endless pipeline of student creativity.”

Production challenges In a recent interview, Manero, and Dominique Courbin, the director of production at Limbitless, discussed how the company is handling its recent growth. Limbitless has just installed its latest CNC machine, a Tormach 770M mill, which joins a Tormach PCNC 440 mill and an 8L lathe in the company’s production lab.

“These are exciting times here,” Manero says. “We continue to grow and as such, we are working hard to create as many standardized parts as possible for our limbs.”

Limbitless first found out about Tormach when it was presenting at an Autodesk conference on in-house prototyping.

“We heard from them that Tormach was the best machinery for makers like us, who wanted to ramp up our machining capabilities,” Courbin says. “I also had seen Tormach machines featured on YouTube from Stuff Made Here.”

Limbitless was an early adopter of the Tormach 8L lathe, and then purchased a PCNC 440 mill. The company received a grant to purchase its new Tormach 770M mill.

Limbitless has numerous 3D printers in its lab, which it continues to use for production of small parts.

“3D printing will always be a part of our company,” Courbin says. “It’s great for prototyping, but we want to use the best tool for each specific challenge. We purchased the Tormach mills to create our own aluminum injection molds, which we use on our in-house vertical molding press to produce parts.”

Courbin said that nine parts are currently being molded for a typical Limbitless limb, and 16 parts are the goal. The primary material being used is ABS.

“It’s hard to buy small quantities of anything, especially with the current supply chain challenges,” Courbin notes, “so we decided to bring machining capability in-house. The Tormach machinery is perfect for us. It provides the high-speed machining and higher spindle speeds we need to create our molds, and Tormach’s support and guidance has been great.”

Future plans Limbitless has successfully placed 40 prosthetic arms to date and has a goal of placing another 25 limbs in 2022. It is working to raise funds to donate 100 bionic arms and fully support 100 Bionic Kids (at $10,000 in projected expenses to the program per participant) in future clinical trials. The company is working towards the goal of someday having arms available to anyone who needs one.

Recent developments at the company include creating limbs for adults, and branching out into other products, the latest of which is a facial-controlled wheelchair for ALS patients.

“We are thrilled to be helping Limbitless Solutions grow and achieve its goals,” says Lori Morrison Bufalo, Tormach’s marketing director. “They are working to improve the lives of children who have traditionally been discouraged due to their so-called handicaps. We support their mission and are very proud to be a part of their journey.”

The tool that eases the process of designing medical devices.

The medical world has seen numerous technological advancements in the past decades. They have consistently been pushing the boundaries of learning and improvement.

Generative design software is one such advancement. It has been a revolutionary boon to various fields such as engineering, design, architecture, etc.

It has been extensively used in the medical field as well – to outstanding results. If you are considering including generative design software in your medical practice, this post is for you.

Read on to know the many benefits of generative design software and how it can help you transform medical procedures and devices.

Generative Design Software: the tool that eases the process of designing medical devices

Generative design software can be defined as engineering software that allows you to partner up with artificial intelligence to create better designs. In this process, you and the AI algorithms create and evaluate numerous designs for a single product idea to land on the one best suited for it.

The idea is to create better designs in less time. These designs are prepared for maximum optimization after accounting for every contingency. You can accomplish this with the use of a host of tools that drive operations, optimization, and workflows.

nTopology's generative design software is one of the leading software when it comes to designing medical devices and equipment. Here is everything you need to know about how you can transform your medical practice with generative design software.

1. Generative design software over other tools Perhaps the first order of business when it comes to choosing a method is determining it should be preferred over the others. The world of medical treatment and practice is nothing if not constantly evolving.

New breakthroughs are made that completely change the way we operate things, benefiting patients better and healing them in a more holistic way. Generative design is in the league of such developments that completely change the way we go about things.

Creating medical devices with the use of this software is simply a better approach to the traditional tools when it comes to the money, time, and effort you put in. You can explore hundreds of potential designs, evaluate them at length before landing on the one that suits you best.

This saves you hours of testing out various formulations to decide which one is the best. You don’t even have to upgrade the devices as you already get to pick the best design for the current technology i.e., the most optimized design.

2. Ease of operations When we talk about the ease of use that comes with generative design, we mean both the ease of using said software and the overall ease of the process it brings to your medical practice. First, talking about using the software – it can be well integrated with your existing system to be used in tandem with it.

You don’t have to mold your existing system as per the software. In fact, the menus can be set up based on the context – manually or automatically. Moreover, the software will sync itself to your system.

You can also incorporate its results into your workflow. Eventually, it allows you to work faster and more efficiently. Since you don’t have to adjust to anything new, you can simply shift your work to the software and continue working there, this time with a much better approach.

It gives you an optimized work structure with an increased testing speed. You can potentially test out hundreds of designs for a single product without wasting any resources to see its functionality.

3. Innovation With this software, you don't just design parts for your medical equipment – you design complete processes. Therein lies the innovation as you get to take complete control of your workflows and oversee the complete process.

Generative design software coupled with the AI aids your capabilities as a medical device engineer. It allows you to design better, test more options and eventually innovate in your field. With accelerated development cycles you will get to take advantage of the manufacturing technologies.

The output you so receive can either be represented as an aid for additive manufacturing or incorporated into the downstream processes. Both offer distinctive advantages, depending on the path you wish to take with your process.

Once you set your goals and objective, you can simply let the software take over. The designs will be created and optimized for your requirement. You do not need to put the manual work in as you did in the established practices.

4. Data-driven optimization If we were to break down the approach of generative design software, we would see that the software builds on the traditional design approach. It applies computing powers and optimization techniques to concoct a sustainable design.

It then thoroughly tests it for optimization to make sure you have nothing but the best formulation for your perusal. This approach builds medical devices that are much more sound and foolproof.

As a medical equipment manufacturer, you should strive to create tools that are safe and sturdy while offering ease of use. The software allows you to create such devices with maximum optimization.

It is backed with data and results, leaving no room for fallacies. Additionally, the software can work in tandem with additive technology if you use that. In case you don’t, the software will work just as well with the traditional technology.

In other words, you don’t have to upgrade the way you manufacture your devices to match the cutting-edge technology of the software. The software itself will mold to fit the way you operate. As mentioned earlier, it can also be seen in the results and menu of the operations.

5. Tools for every course of action Generative design software offers a multitude of tools that aid and enable every kind of operation you perform. You get a plethora of computation tools. They analyze and generate requirements and constraints that match the requirement you have set in advance.

Similarly, you get optimal design workflows for latticing operations and top-notch optimization. They map out the best route for you to take based on historical and current data, leaving you the hard work.

This is better as earlier, you would have to compute all the possible routes for the most-suitable design models manually. Such labor would restrict you from analyzing all possible solutions. You could only test out the calculations of a handful of alternatives.

With this software, not only can you compute a number of options, you can also create your own algorithms. This helps you automate and optimize the best process for your designs. You can collaborate your own formulations with external designs to truly innovate.

6. Serves multiple objectives One of the most unique features of such software is its ability to fulfill multiple objectives at the same time. It takes into account the specifications you put in every aspect. This includes specifications of stress, weight, temperature, and frequency.

It also takes into account the overall goal that needs to be accomplished. Not just that, it makes sure that you remain within guidelines and do not overstep them. In other words, it takes into consideration what you want to accomplish against the regulatory restrictions.

Therefore, it concocts up formulations that serve the goal you set for it while fulfilling the industry standard as well. This gives you true optimization without spending much time and effort on various tests.

Your goals can be as specific or as vague as you want. Suppose you don’t have a specification for weight and are willing to experiment around on it. In such a case, you can simply set all other objectives and the weight will come up based on the best optimization.

7. Integrates other tools and creates a seamless workflow If you are wondering about the software’s compatibility with other tools you use, fret not. The generative design software works seamlessly with major software such as CAE, PLM, and CAD. You don’t have to worry about integrating it with them, no data will be lost there.

Additionally, it also works perfectly fine with engineering formats like STEP, Parasolid, 3MF, STL, and FE meshes. The list also includes 3D scanning data. No data will be lost while you import and export files from one platform to another.

You can also import experiment engineering data to give it a go in the software. Don’t worry, this will not corrupt the software in any way.

Experimental engineering data is fully supported in the software. Such data is immediately turned into geometrics, making it available to be used in operations at the earliest.

Conclusion The generative design methodology is already making waves in the fields of engineering, art, and design. It is well making its way into the medical realm as well. If you are looking to revamp the way you manufacture and design medical devices, the generative design software will be the perfect ally for you. Get started with it today.

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