The medical and pharmaceutical technology industries demand nothing short of excellence when it comes to surface properties and quality. DeburringEXPO, the leading trade fair for deburring technologies and precision surfaces, will be showcasing the latest products and services from 10 to 12 October 2023 at the Karlsruhe Trade Fair Centre. This year marks the 5th edition of the event, featuring an extensive range of solutions along with a bilingual specialist forum and various theme parks.
In the medical technology sector, the pursuit of patient-oriented, functional, and durable endoprosthetic products, instruments, and diagnostic devices has led to the adoption of innovative materials and manufacturing technologies like additive manufacturing. Moreover, with the European MDR (Medical Device Regulation) in place, surface treatment, validation, and quality management of related processes have gained importance. The pharmaceutical technology sector, too, requires surfaces of the highest quality for products such as containers, agitators, mixers, and tableting dies. These components must possess exceptional precision, smoothness, and defect-free surfaces to facilitate easy cleaning, prevent cross-contamination, and minimize wear.
For both industries, ensuring products have surfaces that guarantee safe and reliable long-term use is of utmost importance. Additionally, adherence to factors like traceability, energy and resource efficiency in processes, and seamless integration into interconnected production setups is crucial.
Surfaces meeting the requirements for medical and pharmaceutical products
"With its cross-industry and cross-material exhibition spectrum, DeburringEXPO supports companies from the medical technology and pharmaceutical industry in the search for suitable methods," claims Hartmut Herdin, Managing Director of the private fair organiser fairXperts GmbH and Co. KG. This is confirmed by the fact that many of the participating companies have experience in these industries, and the entire spectrum of technologies, processes, tools and services for deburring, edge rounding, cleaning and surface finish will be presented.
The exhibition will feature mechanical deburring with tools, vibratory grinding, brush deburring, and blasting using solid and liquid media. Of particular interest is a new development that showcases fully automated and production-integrated deburring and simultaneous cleaning with the use of liquid recycled carbon dioxide. This technology involves compressing carbon dioxide into fine granules, which are then accelerated and blasted onto the target surface at supersonic speed.
Several special technologies will also be on display, including ultrasonic deburring for the automatic and reliable removal of burrs from a wide variety of materials, flow grinding for deburring, edge rounding, and polishing complex components, and the electrochemical metalworking (ECM) method, which is perfect for deburring parts made of various metals with precision edge rounding. The newer version of this process, PECM (precise electrochemical metalworking), enables the production of three-dimensional shapes, contours, and structures with unparalleled precision, achieving an imaging accuracy of < 20 μm and a surface quality of Ra < 0.1 μm.
For deburring delicate, thin-walled workpieces, laser deburring proves to be the ideal solution, even allowing for machining edges of holes with diameters of just a few tenths of a millimeter. Unlike conventional electrochemical polishing, the electro-finish is performed using special polymer particles, yielding a glossy finish without micro-scratches, especially useful for geometrically complex components and those manufactured through additive manufacturing.
The DeburringEXPO's framework program offers visitors a wealth of knowledge and know-how, including expert presentations on topics like "Automated Deburring," "Cleaning After Deburring," and "Quality Assurance in the Deburring Process." The highlight is the bilingual expert forum, with presentations interpreted simultaneously in German and English, covering fundamentals, process optimization, best practice applications, and emerging trends. Visitors to the trade fair can attend the expert forum and receive a free edition of the updated and expanded brochure "Basic Knowledge in Deburring Technology" in both German and English.
