Advanced Powder Products earlier this year won the grand prize in the medical/dental category at the 2020 Powder Metallurgy Design Excellence Awards Competition, sponsored by the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF).
APP (Philipsburg, Pa.) won for its guide tube for use in dental surgery.
Here’s more from APP about the guide tube:
“This unique component has extremely thin wall sections and an integrated impingement plate located on the inner diameter of the tube’s tip. The guide tube’s impingement plate features a Gaussian curvature that only metal injection molding can generate economically. To form the plate, APP engineered proprietary tooling utilizing three separate slides that move at an angle to seal on a small core pin. To prevent parting line flash, mismatch, or application failure, the tooling members must seal and align exactly on the Gaussian surface. The guide tube is then sintered, HIPed, heat-treated, and laser welded.”
The guide tube is made of MIM 17 –4-PH Stainless Steel, with a 7.75 g/cm3 density, heat-treated hardness of 40-42 HRC, and tolerances of +/-12.7 μm.
