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Laser cleaning of surgical meshes made of titanium threads

F-Clean laser cleaners have a wide range of applications. They are equally effective for small items and large metal constructions. The application options for laser devices are constantly expanding. In this article we describe the development of a special cleaning technique for the finest titanium strands of surgical implants.


About company

The customer develops and manufactures innovative medical products — mesh implants made of reinforced titanium microwire and suture materials. Products are used for soft tissue regeneration, bone plastic surgery and other areas of surgery.

Task

The key development of the company is a mesh implant, which is titanium filaments 50 microns thick, woven into a single fabric. In the manufacture of the netweave, the threads undergo two stages of heat treatment: preliminary for giving the desired shape, and then repeated to fix the result. During the heat treatment process, scale is formed on the surface of the wire.

Since the company’s invention is an innovative product, the company was looking for affordable high-tech ways to clean the finest titanium filaments from scale and turned to our company to solve this problem.

Pokkels steps in the process

Experiments for the parameter selection

Working with such a thin material demanded a careful selection of the optimal parameters of the laser radiation, especially its power. A standard laser cleaning mode was unacceptable, as it would have led to the destruction of the net. The thickness of the titanium filament is 50 µm. The spot and crater diameter in the standard laser cleaning mode is 25 µm, which effectively removes the contamination layer in one pass, but is unacceptable for working with titanium filament.

Pokkels specialists selected the necessary parameters of the laser device: the radiation power, the pulse duration and the beam sweep speed for optimal cleaning without damage. The selected mode of operation of the laser device allowed the removal of scale without affecting the base metal.

The titanium filaments have a cylindrical shape. To evenly clean the net from all sides, the mesh needs to be stretched so that the filaments unfold at different angles. Initially, this task was also performed by hand. However, it has become clear that manual laser cleaning is ineffective. Manual laser cleaning cannot provide a guaranteed uniform treatment of the product, which is critical for medical implants.

Mechanization development

We proposed to the customer to develop a mechanized laser cleaning system. In order to do so, we needed to solve the problem of net stretching in order to process the titanium filaments from all sides. The customer took on the task of manufacturing the net tensioning system. Our task was to combine the customer’s system with our laser system.

The final version of the mechanized net cleaning system

We presented the F-Clean CS-S 50 Вт case with the developed soft cleaning mode and the software for controlling the laser device. The operator has almost no interaction with the laser device and its parameters. All control is done by a computer. The laser control system has been integrated into the customer’s web stretching system control software.

Summary

Thanks to our joint efforts, we were able to develop an effective cleaning system for the finest titanium filaments. The absence of side contamination, high speed of operation and stable cleaning results allow the production of quality implants that are safe for surgical use.

Key benefits

  • High machining accuracy
  • Simple handling
  • Suitable for cleaning metals of various thicknesses
  • No by-products or consumables
  • Operating time of more than 100,000 hours
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