These clamping devices need to have a textured gripping surface of a specific roughness. Sinker EDM is a good means to achieve that goal. Shown are a before and after picture. The parts are hardened tool steel and the heads are about 1 inch in diameter.
Surgical Screwdriver Gears: These are welded in batches of 200 parts per order using a custom fixture to align the parts and present them accurately to the laser beam. They are 17-4 PH stainless steel.
Surgical Screwdriver Handles: These are milled from 6061 T6 aluminum alloy and glass beaded then clear anodised. Lot sizes are typically 200 parts per order.
Telephone Handsets: These are typical milled plastic parts usually run in lots of several hundred at a time. We mill all manner of plastic enclosures, usually to create openings for cable connectors, switches, displays etc. We have developed a proprietary process to fixture these parts that prevents marring them during machining.
Surgical Screwdriver Clamps: The material is 303 stainless steel and the lot size is 400 parts. They are form ground 10 at a time in a fixture. (Now replaced with metal injection molded parts)
Brass Collets:These were run in lots of 15 units per the customer’s request. The parts are about 3/4inch long and the material is leaded brass.
Stainless Steel Screws: These are run in lots of 25 and are burned in the sinker with a single electrode that has 25 “S” shapes milled on it.
Here is a prototype implant component made from titanium alloy. It is a laser welded assembly with turning, wire EDM, sinker EDM and laser welding all on a unit less than 5mm tall and about 5mm diameter.
The center screw can rotate inside the mating part but is captive. A laser welded collar holds it in place
This is an end-on view of one of the screwdrivers that forms part of the assembly. It is wire EDM cut from hardened 420M stainless steel, and has a taper to allow it to jam into the screw socket. It also has a center hole to permit another screwdriver to go through it. It is about 0.080″ diameter at the tip. The knurled screwdriver head is 304 stainless steel and was laser welded onto the tip
This tiny prototype dental instrument latch was milled from O-1 toolsteel and hardened to RC58-60, then polished. It is 0.025″ thick.
This is the same pin shown in the wire EDM photo gallery.
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