Design teams can improve the development of medical devices and products in many ways through interactive prototyping, design analysis, and material consideration. The prototypes are crucial in helping the designers develop an informed decision from the data collected. The more data gathered by the prototype and product development cycle, the better the chances to build high-quality products by preventing manufacturing issues. The prototypes are common medical development that ensures the final products are accurate and meet strict regulatory and compliance standards.
Understanding the steps involved in manufacturing medical device products can help in decision-making and ensure you improvise better ways to present reliable products and launch them in the market on time. This article will explore ways to help improve your parts during the medical device development stage.
- Consider 3D Printing for Complex Medical
There are many benefits that you get from using direct metal laser sintering, which is a frequently used metal additive manufacturing technology. Some of the benefits include printing high-resolution parts to support metal instrumentation design. Companies can consider finishing options in addition to 3d printing post-processing, injection molding, and machine services. The materials include stainless steel, cobalt chrome, Inconel, titanium, copper, and aluminum. You can consider medical components with organic shapes and surgical tools with ultrafine features. With DMLS, you can Ba prototype surgical hand within days with the exact strength and weight of the final product.
- Leverage Injection Molding for Medical Applications
Medical molding helps move part and component design from prototype to the final product. It is a crucial step since it ensures products pass rigorous testing from development to commercialization. You can also consider using software programs that will enable mold flow analysis to help improve the overall design. One of the ways it can help is by showing the position of knit lines, which allows you to improve your part’s physical and cosmetic properties.
- Using Multi-cavity Tooling to Iterate Prototypes Rapidly
Developing devices and parts for the medical industry is challenging since things move so quickly. It is why you must consider multi-cavity tooling in injection molding to mold in ends using the material and multiple versions of the same prototype. After testing, you can move forward with the prototype that succeeds. The multi-cavity is an efficient and effective way to boost production volume and reduce part cost.
- Choose Finishing Options for Molded Medical Parts
There are many finishing options that you can consider for molding that will provide customization and improve the cosmetic appearance. The finishing process will include heat staking, laser engraving, mold texturing, and basic assembly. You can also consider custom-color matching, threaded inserts, and pad printing.
- Evaluate and Use the Suitable Material for MedTech Parts
Use suitable medical-grade materials for your injection molding or 3D printing projects. This means the prototype will match the final product as closely as possible. You can consider the custom-color matching on customer-supplied part samples and customer-supplied Pantone numbers. Customers will often select materials similar to their in-house material by closely matching strength, hardness, elasticity, and critical characteristics.
End Note!
It’s crucial always to ensure that the manufacturer uses a quality system that goes through rigorous checks and regulatory approvals before the product launches. It’s vital to ensure the quality systems for 3D printing and molding continue throughout the manufacturing process.