Forging a New Pathway to Market

An old art provides even more competitive advantages today.

Stacey L. Bell
Editor at large

Mark Twain once famously wrote, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” The same could be said for forging.

Shown above are Kerrison-handled spinal punches made, in part, with forging techniques. Photo courtesy of Teleflex Medical OEM.

A decade ago, some experts claimed that the millennia-old process of metal working was not long for this world as other techniques gained in popularity. Au contraire, said Ken Tuchel, vice president of implant sales for Symmetry Medical, Inc. in Warsaw, IN. “Forgings will be around for a long, long time. There aren’t many other processes that can increase the longevity of the implant itself,” he explained. “Forgings have smaller grains, resulting in higher strength.”

Advances in machinery, software and materials also have strengthened forging’s value proposition. “Today we’re able to manufacture tooling to tighter tolerances, which allows more products to be created to near net-shape forgings,” Tuchel said. “We’re then able to reduce the amount of secondary machining and processing.”

Fast, Frugal, More Finished: Advantages

In recent years, newly developed precision tooling and materials have allowed forged components and implants to meet more demanding tolerances and aesthetics.

Forgings are produced in three categories:

• Gross shape forgings require the most machining and hand processing post-forging. The typical tolerance achieved in this format is ±0.020 inch, according to Symmetry.

• Near net-shape forgings allow for thinner geometric features, more detail and tolerances to ±0.010 inch.

• Net forgings require the least amount of secondary operations and often only on vital areas such as the taper segment of a hip, where it would be joined to the femoral head, Symmetry reported. Net forgings can accommodate tolerances of up to ±0.005-inch.

Forging a part, rather than having it machined or cast, can offer numerous advantages. First, “forging allows you to maintain or improve raw material strength and deliver a part that is near to finished dimensions,” reported Joe Zuzula Jr., director of sales, marketing and quality for Orchid Stealth in Holt, MI. Further, “it saves raw material costs by reducing the amount of material required as opposed to machining a part from bar stock.”

Rolf Dahl, senior vice president for Accellent, which is headquartered in Wilmington, MA, noted that using forging rather than machining from billet bar stock could yield savings as great as 40%. “Ultimately, you’re able to use less material to achieve the same finished product; plus, the process itself costs less,” he noted.

Forging also can produce a higher-quality result. “The programmable CNC hammers we use can produce an f-799 cobalt chrome hip in one heat in less than 40 seconds. By not reheating, we typically are able to provide better metallurgical results with finer grain structures,” noted Robert Kervick, CEO of KomTeK Technologies in Worcester, MA.

“Unlike with investment casting, forged parts have refined grain size, strength directionality and no porosity,” said Rich Escolas, process engineer for Cardinal Health – Tecomet (Tecomet) in Wilmington, MA. The porosity, pitting and impurities that can result from casting can lead to product failure, whereas forgings are dense and pore-free.

The forging process can save customers valuable production time as well. “Forging accomplishes net shape within minutes versus hours for machining from bar stock,” Escolas pointed out. “This averages a 50% to 75% cycle time savings.”

As automation has made in-roads in forging, additional cost savings have followed. Accellent has developed proprietary modular tooling design techniques that reduce tooling costs and allow changeovers to occur in minutes rather than the hours older versions required.

Less time to produce product, coupled with lower material costs, means forging can provide several competitive advantages to users. Cost is just one consideration. By converting from machining a product from bar stock to forging instead, OEMs can save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, Zuzula estimated.

“More customers are coming to us at the conceptual design phase and wanting to use forging because it’s a way to make products more competitive in the marketplace,” Dahl said.

Not only can a customer benefit from cost savings, but time to market can be shortened as well. “In most cases, working with net shape forging, we reduce the amount of capital equipment needed and the time required to produce an implant. Time to market can be reduced by up to 12 months,” said Tuchel.

And finally, forging offers customers more choices. “There are literally thousands of forging patterns, whether modular or ensemble,” said Chad Ryshkus, product manager, OEM orthopedics at Teleflex Medical OEM in Kenosha, WI. Customers can choose a particular pattern that best suits their product’s design and to give it a unique brand in the marketplace.

“Forging provides optimum grain structure, and because of the curvatures that can be obtained within the cavities of the forge, you can obtain shapes and geometries that can be produced for less cost than through a machine process,” Ryshkus added. For instance, instruments with curved, blended or rounded design features can be more efficiently produced in large volumes by this method.

A Growing Business

Forging houses noted that they are seeing signs of reinvigoration in forging in the orthopedics sector, with reports of yearly growth anywhere in the range of 10% to more than 20%. “Continued growth is expected during the foreseeable future as the orthopedic industry recovers from last year’s slowdown, and as we gain new customers and our current ones are sending larger orders,” said Jean-Paul Burtin, Tecomet’s vice president, marketing and international sales.

Accellent is downright bullish on the sector’s opportunities and is working on nearly doubling its capacity in 2008.

“Our first area of emphasis and investment is in adding more tonnage,” Dahl reported. “The bigger the forge press, the greater the ability to do more geometries. With greater machine tonnage, we’ll be able to do near-net hip stems, tibial trays and add other capabilities.”

Second, Accellent is adding computer-aided tooling designs. By moving near-net shape forgings ever closer to their finished shape, the more secondary operations can be eliminated, thus also eliminating costs and cycle time.

Finally, the company plans to automate more of the forging process. “We’ll use robotic material handling for the furnace process, to pick up/put down parts and for any secondary operations,” Dahl said. “We can automate more of the costs out.”  

Teleflex Medical doesn’t forge in-house, but through its KMedic product line it does provide expertise in the sourcing of quality, hand-crafted forged instrumentation. Ryshkus pointed out that Teleflex Medical’s vendor selection process results in the proper forging for each application. “One source may specialize in ring-handled instruments, while another’s specialty is in Kerrison-handled spinal punches. We offer the advantage of extensive knowledge of these specialties, while supplying value-added services such as supply chain management and engineering support,” Ryshkus said.

Forging a New Future

Certainly, new products and services also are helping to fuel growth in orthopedic forging.

“Most of the growth will come from year-to-year increases in products, additional market share, new product launches and the ability to perform additional capabilities to the parts, such as machining, polishing, coating and packaging,” Zuzula reported.

An example of an old forging press.

Symmetry has instituted two programs that serve as umbrellas for continuing innovation. Its Preferred Customer Program has identified groups within the orthopedic industry that are growing most quickly and could benefit from the company’s services. Symmetry then develops forgings specifically targeted for those areas. For instance, the spine market has made the short list, so Symmetry has created cervical plates and spinal discs that are 0.0010- to 0.0015-inch thinner than other plates on the market today.

In addition, the company has created a Total Solutions model in which it will create the implant, cases, instruments and trays for customers—providing the one-stop shopping that so many OEMs crave today. In addition to providing design help, Tuchel said, Symmetry will manufacture products and assemble them into a complete kit.

Tecomet has launched several programs to aid customers and spur further growth. Its LaunchQuick product development center offers customers first article and small series of new products at a ramped-up pace with its “rapid forging” process, said Steve LaClair, Tecomet’s team leader – engineering. The program was created to aid customers that need to develop and launch multiple new products in a short time frame but don’t have sufficient internal resources to achieve outlined goals.

The Finished Goods/Vendor-Managed Inventory program helps Tecomet customers develop more reliable forecasts and establish more regular ordering patterns to take advantage of group volume discounts.

Teleflex Medical has devised its own unique marketing proposition: The company has identified groups of instruments associated with performing specific orthopedic procedures and developed a selection of products designed to meet those requirements. Customers then can pick and choose which instruments they feel will best accommodate their implant procedure.

“We’ve developed these products so customers don’t have to invest a lot of time and resources in creating new instruments,” Ryshkus explained. “Customers can spend all of their time developing the best implant possible, and we’ll take care of the instrumentation for them. We can support OEMs’ development needs.”

The company also has gotten creative on the materials side of the equation. This fall, Teleflex Medical plans to introduce Herculite, a new material that can be forged or machined. “It is lighter than titanium, but stronger,” Ryshkus said. “The industry is looking for a big leap forward in the materials that are available, and we are working to offer alternatives.”

Commonly, titanium, cobalt chrome and stainless steel are used in forging, but companies are working to develop alloys that will provide improved mechanical properties.

“We’re investing, along with our customers and suppliers, in cobalt chrome and developing improved capabilities, particularly in strength and weight characteristics and bar composition,” Dahl said. “To a lesser extent, the same is true for titanium.”

Rising to Challenges

Material supplies and pricing have been a concern the past few years, but experts say the toughest times have passed. “Titanium has been available, but the prices have increased dramatically. Cobalt chrome has seen fluctuations in both regards, but it is more stable now. A year and a half ago, we’d be ordering a year and a quarter in advance. Now we’re down to an eight- to 10-week period. It’s gotten better,” Kervick said.

“About three years ago, the whole industry experienced shortages and higher prices of raw materials, particularly titanium, and cobalt chromium to a lesser extent,” said Mike LeBlanc, Tecomet’s production control supervisor. “Our view is that the huge and rather sudden demand from China was the main driver for that situation, and a resulting panic effect exacerbated the problem. During the past 18 months, availability is better although prices have remained high and most likely will not decrease anytime soon.

“During the worst period, we experienced lead times of about 12 to 14 weeks. That number declined to four to six weeks about 18 months ago, and now we are able to buy from inventory,” LeBlanc added.    

A second challenge—as it is for many industries—is finding quality, skilled workers. “As the auto industry has left the country, those technical skills are leaving as well,” Dahl said. “Finding talented engineers with forging experience can be difficult.”

Accellent’s solution has been to hire mechanical and manufacturing engineers and train them in the intricacies of forging. The company also scouts vocational-technical schools to find good technicians.

A Positive Prognosis

Forging houses also continue to introduce more automation into their processes, as well as basic tenets of Lean manufacturing and other philosophies that will enable them to maximize value and output for their OEM customers.

“The outlook for the forging industry is great since the orthopedic market is expected to grow at a double-digit rate for many years to come as the worldwide baby boomer population creates a huge need for orthopedic implants,” Burtin said.

Huge need, coupled with significant advances in tooling, materials and methods, should set the stage for healthy growth for the foreseeable future.

Stacey L. Bell is a freelance writer from the Tampa, FL area who specializes in business and marketing issues.