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Vibro vs. Conventional Flap Wheel Polishing Technique

June 25, 2009

Hi all,

We are a surgical instruments manufacturing company and are looking to automate our instruments grinding and polishing process by the way of substituting conventional abrasive flap wheel polishing with Vibro bowls & ceramic media. our output of single use surgical instruments is 2.2M pieces/mo. can anyone perhaps shed some light on the pros & cons of switching from abrasive flap wheels to Virbo Grinding/Polishing. the goal here is to minimize cost, maximize output, reduce lead time and maintain a salable finish.

we are using AISI-410Type steel for our Instruments, our primary instruments include dressing/Tissue forceps, Artery clamps (size range 5.5IN~9.5IN), dressing scissors/tissue scissors (size range 5.5IN~9.5IN) Dental forceps and a variety of vaginal Speculums.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks!

Mirza Mudassir Najeeb
Medical Device Manufacturer - Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan

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You should be able to drastically reduce the amount of hand labor by using mass finishing equipment, but you will still may need to do some hand work to get that smooth of a finish.

AF Kenton
retired business owner - Hatboro, Pennsylvania
July 13, 2009