FAQ – Medical

Our company manufactures a cannula that, in surgery, goes into the body through the navel.  It is basically a tube with an opening at the end for introduction of fiber optics, procedures and medication.  Can Extrude Hone debar from the inside to radius that edge, as well as the outside?

As long as the part has a way for media to flow in and out through it, that edge can be deburred and radiused to prevent tissue damage.  In addition the ID walls would see a gentle polishing that will help bacteria from collecting and contaminating the part

How do you control the amount of material removed?

Primary variables are the tooling, the media flow pressure, the viscosity and abrasive concentration of the media.

The tooling is a holding fixture that directs media flow to the target area of the part, while protecting areas where abrasion is not desired.  Media flow pressure available has a range of 200 to 2000 psi.

The media carrier, silicon rubber, comes in three basic viscosities:  high, medium and low; while the silicon carbide abrasive ranges in size from the fineness of baby powder to the coarseness of buckshot.

All these taken together are manipulated to produce the desired result on the workpiece.  For this reason, each and every application destined for Extrude Hone AFM has to be engineered and developed.

What dimensional tolerances can Extrude Hone hold?

We can hold tolerances within 1 – ten-thousandths of an inch (.00001).  A human hair is approximately three to four thousandths of an inch in diameter (.003-.004).  That is some 30 to 40 graduations of the tolerances we can hold.