One of the parts the founder of Phillips Precision Medicraft (PPM) made some 40 years ago is on the moon, precisely where the Apollo astronauts left it. Other parts that he made more recently are just as out-of-reach, but much closer to home. It is lodged precisely and in perpetuity in his own spine. Many patients live with an implant in them these days and many are manufactured out of exotic materials like titanium and even PEEK.
The situation today is a far cry from the business that was started back in 1967. Located less than 20 miles from New York City, PPM today manufactures advanced orthopedic implants, instrumentation, and sterilised delivery systems. It specialises in implants for the knee, hip, elbow, shoulder and spine, as well as the instrumentation and tooling necessary to install such devices in the body.
Complicated Titanium Parts & Impromptu Orders
The company is not making commodity parts; the components produced on the long lines of neatly laid out machines contain precise and highly-complex features.
For instance, the company’s conical stems are complex titanium parts that utilise several machines for operations that include close angular tapers, milling, drilling, tapping, turning, and broaching hexagons.
The flexibility of the machines is a vital element in the day-to-day success of the business, especially when it comes to the production of conical stems.
According to John Phillips, PPM’s president of Operations, the company can offer up to 60 different sizes of conical stems at the touch of a ‘start’ button for example, often in batches up to 1,200 or 1,500 a month. At the same time, the company will often produce custom runs of just 5, 20, or 100. This flexibility is something the company can fall back on due to the fact that it rarely gets much advance notice of what parts will be required, or when.
Taking The Medical Route
“Basically, we upgraded to the manufacture of medical devices and never looked back,” says Mr Phillips. “No one was in orthopedics back then, so it was a major opportunity for the business. Obviously, nowadays it’s a whole different game. We made a concerted effort to invest a few million dollars to build our quality systems, procedures, and control plans to ISO 13485 standards.”
Today, the pressures faced by PPM centre largely on customers seeking offshore solutions, typically from China, Malaysia, and other low-cost areas of the world. As a result, the company has created a niche for machining high-end medical components that “no one else wants to cut, because it’s just not profitable for them.”
Typical materials processed on their Haas machines include 17/4 stainless steel, 400- and 300-series stainless steel, titanium, cobalt chrome, and PEEK (polyether ether ketone).
“Take this hip broach, for example,” says Mr Phillips, holding a part approximately 10” long with tapered cutting-tooth geometry at one end, transposing to hexagon geometry at the other.
“It would normally be produced on a CNC grinding machine, but we use Haas fourth-axis and right-angle head technology to introduce a tool at such an angle and high rpm that we’re able to simulate a five-axis application, producing the broach with a tool geometry that cannot be duplicated using grinding technology. The resulting broach offers a very aggressive cutting-tooth design, which the doctors love, because they can get in and out very quickly, reducing surgery times.”
Making medical parts may have its unique sets of challenges but the rewards can sometimes transcend the realm of profitability. Mr Phillips and his family understands fully the importance of the parts they are making, the difference they can make to a recipient’s life, and the need to pay close attention to specifications and quality. This is because his father has PPM spine parts in him and they are working well, allowing him to have an active life.
