Manufacturing Surgical Instruments

Manufacturing Surgical Instruments Posted on May 4, 2012 Manufacturing Surgical Instruments The first stage in manufacturing is to develop the forging, or in other words create a stamp of the surgical instruments rough outline from a heated bar of stainless steel. The next step is to grind and mill the forging, which is how the excess steel is removed. For some surgical instruments like scissors and hemostats, more than twenty milling operations are performed, including the creating of male and female halves, cutting of precise serrations and matching of ratchets. Our surgical instrument makers undergo several years of apprenticeship, training under the guidance of an experienced crafts-person. Numerous quality checks and finishing applications are performed on each instrument, ensuring the quality and perfection. When assembly is complete, all surgical instruments undergo a final procedure where they are heated to approximately 1500 degrees Fahrenheit and cooled in a controlled fashion. This step provides the medical instruments with their hardness. The next stage consists of improving a surgical instruments resistance to corrosion, which is achieved through polishing and passivation. Polishing gives the medical instruments a smooth finish and lustrous final appearance. The finish can be shiny (mirror-finish) or matte/satin, which gives a gray-colored surface that doesn’t reflect light. The passivation process uses nitric acid to remove the iron content from the outside layer of the medical instrument. Removal of this iron helps build a layer of chromium oxide, which is highly resistant to corrosion and continues to build throughout the life of the medical instrument. At this point the medical instruments are ready for final inspection. Our goal and mission has been developing, sourcing, and distributing high quality Focus surgical instruments with manufacturers.