Saint-Gobain Abrasives Offer an

Saint-Gobain Abrasives provides a full line of abrasive products to manufacturers in the medical market, supporting every step in the manufacturing process, from casting to finish. Major manufacturers of medical devices and instruments have demonstrated manufacturing success with the full line of abrasive products and application engineering services offered by Saint-Gobain. The abrasive products are engineered to enhance overall product quality, lower costs, reduce manufacturing steps, and help alleviate manufacturing bottlenecks. Given its products and experience, Saint-Gobain Abrasives is in a position to provide considerable help to manufacturers within the various segments of the growing medical device and diagnostics market.

Tapping its worldwide engineering and applications, Saint-Gobain has experience working with the manufacturers of orthopedic implants, saving time, eliminating back-ups and reducing costs during gate grinding, rough finishing and mirror finishing of metal prostheses. In addition, the company's abrasives are used for the finishing and sharpening of tools and surgical instruments; traverse or plunge grinding of hypodermic needles; stent honing; and the centerless grinding of catheters. One indicator that may open the eyes of medical device manufacturers is the fact that 2005 capital spending for grinding machines for the medical manufacturing market was greater than for the electronics and computers, automotive, and metalworking job shop markets.

PROVIDING A WIDE RANGE OF PRODUCTS
Saint-Gobain's offerings for the medical manufacturing market include seededgel belts with ceramic aluminum oxide abrasive and cut-off wheels for applications such as gate grinding and cutting of castings. For rough finishing, there are cubic boron nitride (CBN)- plated grinding wheels that improve performance by allowing for heavy stock removal, which eliminates the need for truing and dressing.

Saint-Gobain offers two products that are especially suited to the medical manufacturing market, the U243 and the U442. The U243 features a new flexible J-weight cotton backing for better flexibility and improved conformability in both offhand and robotic applications. The U442 features a fine tri-helical pattern of silicon carbide grains, providing improved flexibility over similar existing products.

The patented Norton SG BLAZE R980 coated abrasive belt line performs well in the removal of gates on orthopedic implants. It is designed to bring productivity gains to the toughest metal grinding applications. Besides a distinctive grain-side orange color, the belts feature a completely new ceramic grain; an improved backing; an enhanced, proprietary resin system; and a special lubricant. This ceramic grain has demonstrated cool, fast cutting action, while resisting wear.

PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES
Saint-Gobain can help determinine the scope of tests to be performed, developing test methodologies; preparing the tests; collecting operating parameters and results; analyzing data; drawing conclusions and recommending subsequent steps for achieving better finishes.