Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Instant measurement brings instant results, and heavy traffic, to this medical manufacturer

January 21, 2016 By MDO Editor

Kevin Botta, Continuous Improvement Manager at Orchid Orthopedic Solutions, has been having a hard time keeping people out of the quality inspection lab. “I’ve had to chase people out of here because they want to measure everything with the new equipment,” said Botta. “It’s amazing how much faster it is than our legacy inspection methods.”

He’s talking about the IM, or “Instant Measurement,” systems Orchid purchased recently to increase inspection th7700-Orchid 1roughput on the small, tight-tolerance components machined at the company’s Arab, Alabama facility. With the ability to simultaneously measure up to 99 dimensions, and do so in less than 3 seconds, the Instant Measurement gives Orchid employees a tremendous increase in the speed and efficiency at which they can measure parts.

It’s a good thing the company bought three of the units; otherwise quality control would really have their hands full.

Orchid is a designer and manufacturer of life changing—and life saving—orthopedic implants, surgical instruments and other medical devices. The company’s mission statement is “to provide an opportunity for people to live a better life.” IM_Product_HR.jpg_ico500

That mission pertains to everyone the company touches—the patients treated with Orchid products, the surgeons who use them, their OEM customers and the employees who make and market a diverse range of spinal screws, fusion cages, fixation plates, hip and femoral stems, as well as the instruments needed to install those components in the human body.

Considering what’s at stake, the company has a strong emphasis on quality, and is registered with the FDA. This is at least part of the reason it partnered with Keyence, as it needed a reliable method of measuring together with a metrology partner that would stand behind its products. Botta—a self-avowed CMM junkie—said he’s been monitoring vision measurement technology for the past decade, and made the final decision to go with Keyence during a visit to the 2014 IMTS show.

“I spent an entire day cruising the Metrology hall at McCormick Place. Compared to the other brands, the Keyence has easily twice the measurement accuracy and repeatability. It has the largest measurement stage for ‘field of view’ technology,” he said. “Also, there are some really neat things about the IM. It has a wide-angle double telecentric lens, so it eliminates the curve you sometimes get when checking a part on an optical comparator. And the programmable ring illumination takes care of any potential lighting problems.”

7700-Orchid 3Before signing on the dotted line, Orchid sent a test part to Keyence a geared component Orchid was making for a customer in Italy and had previously had trouble getting repeatable inspection results. The Instant Measurement had no problem measuring the spline gear’s pitch, major and minor diameters, the tooth angle and form, and concentricity, a tall order for many inspection machines. Based on these results, Orchid placed the order for three IM-6225 “Place-and-Press” Image Dimension Measuring Systems.

“When the machines arrived—and after they were FDA validated—the opportunity to implement this technology exploded,” he said. “Quality planning was asking if we could inspect anything from milled parts to dimensions on laser marking. Our first real big savings happened when the technicians in the lab figured out they could measure multiple parts at a time. The Friday before, our Quality Manager Scott Steelman spent twelve hours measuring a lot of 200 parts. A week later, we programmed the same job on the Keyence system and were able to measure the same 200 parts within 30 minutes. We learned to program and use the machines in only a few short hours.”

The news has spread. Botta said he’s been kept busy doing test measurements and pushing the envelope of the system. “Orchid has purchased some battery-powered carts and made the Instant Measurement mobile. We have integrated the wireless bridge with a mobile power cart solution to optimize the systems mobility on the manufacturing floor. We worked with the Keyence support staff and our I.T. Department to make this work. Keyence’s support level has been phenomenal,” he said. “We are able to download part programs and CAD files to the machine, and upload measurement results back to the file server. It’s going to make life very simple for the people on the shop floor.”

Keyence
keyence.com

Related Articles Read More >

A cylindrical-shaped medical device with a blue cap on one end and a brown cap on the other
How SeaStar’s device calms hyperinflammation — and could prevent lasting damage from COVID cytokine storms
Zsquare single-use endoscope
Zsquare’s single-use endoscope wins 2022 German Innovation Award
A portrait of Henry Schein CEO Stanley Bergman
Henry Schein investors push back on executive pay
A portrait of Dr. Philip Adamson
Expect more heart and lung failure years after COVID, Abbott’s heart failure CMO says

DeviceTalks Weekly.

June 24, 2022
How innovative design, commercial strategy is building Cala Trio’s bioelectronic medicine market
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech