Case Study – Medical Equipment

Investment Casting for Medical Surgical Tables

Over the years, our investment casting services here at Waltek, Inc. have proven a good fit for the medical equipment industry. The images highlighted here show five different components we produce for one of our clients. Designed for use on operating tables as well as an adjustable swivel overhead light fixture, these parts consist of a knob, retaining collar, hub, lens driver, and bracket pull housing.

Materials of construction included several grades of steel as well as phosphor bronze. Investment casting using the lost wax methodology allowed us to produce these parts with great accuracy. By paying attention to every geometric detail during mold making and using our computer-controlled and formula-driven casting processes, we achieved excellent consistency in the quality of the cast parts. After casting, we removed all burrs, making sure we flushed them from all internal passages, and then heat treated the parts to impart the desired strength properties. Additional operations consisted of secondary machining, painting, and plating.

Once completed, these parts featured various dimensions in 25 to 250 millimeter (mm) range and weighed from 0.2 to 15 pound (lbs). Dimensional inspections confirmed that we upheld ± .075 millimeter (mm) tolerances, while numerous material tests validated the tensile strength, yield strength, hardness, as well as various other mechanical criteria.

For production to be efficient, it needs to be consistent, and our processes ensured excellent quality from each production run. We continue to cast these parts on a regular basis to hold inventory between minimum and maximum levels, ensuring the parts are available to the customer on a just-in-time basis.

We formed a strategic partnership with this client that encompasses more than 50 different part numbers for which we have established a Kanban stocking program. For many of these parts, we engaged with them at the prototyping stage, where our ability to create functional models within narrow timelines helped them speed their time to market and allowed us to develop systems for a rapid transition to full production levels.

For more information about this project or our investment casting capabilities, contact us today.