A hybrid process for manufacturing surgical-grade knife blade cutting edges from bulk metallic glass

Alex J. Krejcie, Shiv G. Kapoor, Richard E. Devor

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The demand for precision surgical knives is enormous. Currently, diamond knives have been the preferred choice among surgeons for use in precision surgeries, owing to the extreme hardness of diamond and the sharpness that can be achieved in single crystal diamond blades, but material and processing costs are high. Bulk metallic glass (BMG) has the potential to be an economically viable material of similar performance for use in precision surgical knives. To this end, a novel hybrid manufacturing process integrating thermally assisted micro-molding and micro-drawing has been developed for producing BMG surgical-grade knife blade cutting edges with edge radii <50 nm. A hybrid process testbed was designed and used to successfully run tests over a range of the key process variables. Through this testing the deformation of BMG under different strain rates and temperatures was studied in terms of the quality of edge formation. The hybrid process was shown to be capable of producing cutting edges of radius at or below 100 nm.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)26-34
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Manufacturing Processes
Volume14
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2012

Keywords

  • Bulk metallic glass
  • Deformation Study
  • Micro-drawing
  • Micro-manufacturing
  • Micro-molding
  • Surgical blade

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Strategy and Management
  • Management Science and Operations Research
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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