Notched Tube: Stainless Steel

Customer:

Major Medical Device Manufacturer

Background:

Stainless steel tubing is frequently used in the manufacture of medical devices. The manufacturing operations typically include cut-off, flaring, bending, notching etc.

Manufacturing Challenge:

Stainless steel presents manufacturing challenges because it is difficult to machine and form. In cut-off and notching applications burrs are difficult and expensive to deal with. They often must be removed by tedious and time consuming manual secondary operations and therefore have questionable process capability. If the parts are processed using EDM, the process is slow and a recast layer is formed which is objectionable in many medical applications. If the workpieces are processed using mechanical or abrasive machining techniques there may be detrimental heat related problems. For example, if tubing is cut-off abrasively heat related micro-cracking may result which causes failures if the tubing is subsequently flared.

Solution:

The tubing pictured below was cut-off using an Everite electrochemical tube cut-off machine. The notch was then put in using an Everite electrochemical surface grinder Model EG-618. Depending on production and tolerance requirements, the notch can also be processed on the same machine doing the cut-off, using Everite’s proprietary SmartHead™ control technology.