Medical Implant Company Installs Two New Tornos machines

For more than 20 years, Königsee Implantate based in Königsee, deep in the Thuringian Forest in Germany, has been developing and producing implants and instruments for traumatology, orthopedics and spinal surgery with enormous success. In the course of continuous process improvements, two new Tornos EVODeco 16 machines have been purchased.

In the medical industry, Königsee is a significant manufacturer with a history that dates back to the end of World War I. In 1919, orthopedic technician Otto Bock founded the company in Berlin to provide disabled war veterans with prostheses and other orthopedic products. Shortly afterwards, the company moved to Königsee, in Thuringia. This was the origin for Königsee Implantate GmbH, which was founded by Erich Orschler in 1993.

The success story started with a small machine inventory and the strong determination of its employees. Initially, the company focused exclusively on the development and manufacturing of osteo-synthesis systems for traumatology and orthopedics. For more than 10 years now, it has also been offering solutions for spinal surgery.

The products for almost all bone sections, from the collarbone to the toes, drastically speed up the healing process of fractures compared to conventional methods of treatment. New solutions constantly arise from the close collaboration with physicians and surgical teams. The development projects comprise the complete path of the value chain, from the idea and development of a prototype to the manufacture of the product. During this process, painstaking attention is paid to quality, since it is the basic requirement for the long service life and safe use of implants. This is why they purchased two new EVODeco 16 machines from Tornos.

In layman's terms, an osteo-synthesis system consists of a plate that is matched with the anatomy and screwed onto the bones with a variable number of screws of different lengths and diameters. Königsee comprises the entire manufacturing process from purchase and planning to the milling, turning, grinding and galvanizing to the final inspection and warehousing. Design concepts are translated into series production.  The pricing pressure has reached the medical industry and this means that top quality produce from Germany can only be competitive by applying a sophisticated manufacturing strategy. For this reason, Königsee has invested in Tornos.

The fine art of turning
All the screws are produced in the turning shop. Fractures require screws of different lengths and diameters, as well as with different properties. Depending on their use, the screw types produced are self-tapping, self-drilling or reverse-tapping.  The threads are either full threads up to the head or partial threads. The threads are whirled with various pitches while heeding the tightest shape tolerances.  The head faces usually have a hexagon or hexalobular (Torx) socket. Most of the screws are cannulated, featuring a channel to drain the tissue fluid.

The material used is usually titanium or implant steel.  Even if it is not difficult to machine titanium, it features two special characteristics, low thermal conductivity and the difficulty to break the chips, which requires special cooling strategies. Tool wear is very high due to the extreme toughness of the material. The varying lot sizes are between 25 and 150 pieces. All screws must be as burr-free as possible in order to minimize rework. Although Königsee had already been well positioned with seven Tornos machines, they decided to purchase two new EVODeco 16 machines.

A tuned up all-rounder
Thanks to their kinematics and tooling, Tornos EVODeco’s are pre-destined for manufacturing complex workpieces with high quality. Christian Hedwig, manufacturing engineer for turning operations at Königsee, emphasizes the decisive reason for purchasing these machines: "Up to then, we had been using DECO 13 and DECO 20 machines. On the two new machines, we can produce a larger diversity of parts, which makes us much more flexible. “

“On the other hand, the large number of tools opens up new possibilities in terms of machining even more complex workpieces in one set-up. This purchase has enabled us to improve our processes." To do so, the EVODeco 16 machines have been further optimized by Königsee. A high-pressure coolant system by Müller Hydraulik has been installed with a pressure of up to 150 bar to feed directly to the individual tool blocks through a manifold block. This significantly improves chip breakage and evacuation. As a consequence, the tool life and process stability are extended. Stability is a major advantage of the Tornos machines.

The EVODeco 16 machines operate with high reliability and produce parts with absolute dimensional accuracy over a long period of time. Another interesting point is that the new EVODeco’s have again reduced the production times by up to 30 percent. The employees of Königsee are full of praise after having started series production. They soon became familiar with the machine, since the TB-Deco control functions are extremely user-friendly and were already known to the company. At present, the machines are running in three shifts and help to further improve the already high standards of the Königsee Implantate GmbH.