WINONA LAKE – The medical device industry is a late adopter of the technology and practices that drive other major industries, attendees at the OrthoTec conference heard this week. The fourth annual conference and exhibition for orthopaedic design and manufacturing drew hundreds of attendees from across the country Wednesday and Thursday to hear from industry leaders and view the latest developments in technology. With an eye-catching collection of precision measuring tools on display, Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Renishaw Inc. was one of about 80 exhibitors in the main room at the Orthopaedic Capital Center at Grace College. Ancillary industries representing themselves included computer-aided design, laser engraving and injection-molding. Renishaw products like the Equator programmable gauging system – an array of spindly arms capable of measuring machine-cut components to within a couple microns – revolutionized the machining industry 37 years ago, according to Dan Skulan, regional sales manager. “It’s used in virtually every shop in the world,” he said Thursday, listing major auto and aerospace manufacturers and noting that it attracted a lot of attention from medical device company representatives during the conference. He then held up a cobalt chrome component fabricated by a piece of emerging technology, represented by only 500 machines in the world but attracting the interest of just about every company doing metal work. The additive printed metal process, similar to the 3D plastic printing used in many shops and hobbyists’ homes, is almost the opposite of the subtractive process of cutting away at a chunk of metal to produce a component, he said. Subtractive processes such as milling and electrical discharge machining have been the standard in many industries for decades, but he said the additive process is capable of such custom precision as reproducing a person’s bone structure in metal. “They’re all very actively looking into it. In some ways, it will replace what they do now,” Skulan said. “About 80 percent of the interest I had was for that. They were impressed by it.” But due to the unique nature of the medical device industry, which must rely on FDA approval for devices that interact with the body, it’s often the last to adopt newer technology, he said. “You have to warranty the product for 80 years,” he remarked – longer than the typical aerospace product at 10 to 15 years, automotive product at three to five years, and significantly longer than consumer products, such as cell phones, at only one year. “The medical industry is liable for the lifetime of a person,” he said, meaning a company that produces a hip implanted in a high school football player is still liable if the device injures him when he’s 80 years old. The medical industry is behind the auto industry in areas like supplier systems as well, automotive industry veterans said during a panel discussion Thursday. Jeff Hartsock, associate director for Zimmer supplier management, and Joe McDermond, director of Biomet supplier quality assurance, discussed what orthopaedics could learn from the auto industry. They focused on relationships with suppliers – forging partnerships and helping them gain the knowledge to be more efficient – a realm of experience they said many former automotive employees have been bringing to the industry since the economic downturn. It’s an area where medical device industry “is about 20 years behind the auto industry, and it’s time to play catch-up,” Hartsock remarked.
