medical marking

[Ann Boone]

I realize this is a "woodworkers" forum but I wondered if any laser engravers out there know anything about doing medical marking? Does anyone know what all is involved in getting into that field?

[Darren Null]

If it's metal you're after marking, you can do it with Cermark (http://www.cermark.com/) with a CO2 laser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_laser) (what we mostly have round here). Spray on the marking stuff and laser to fix, then remove the excess.

I believe that most medical marking is done with a different type of laser though: Nd:YAG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nd:YAG_laser) and other diode-pumped solid state lasers, which is a different game altogether.

Not very helpful, sorry, but hopefully you're pointed in the right direction now...

[Ann Boone]

Thanks for the input. I work for a laser engraving company. They have a yag and a co2. Thought it would be smart to look into the medical marking but don't know much about how you go about getting into it. Do the maufacturer's mark it, do the individual hospitals contract someone to do it? I just thought someone in the forum might have picked up some info. at some point that might educate me a little.

[Rodne Gold]

There are many forms of lasering that can be used in medical marking.
The most profitable is marking items that go into the body like titanium hip joints , artificial heart valves and so forth.
You can also mark instruments , do labelling for asset registers , small signs for hospitals , face plates for machinery , instruction sets for machinery , caution labels etc.
Approach the local clinic or hospital and use your eyes to see where you can offer services. Approach medical supply houses for branding instruments etc.

[Christian Kaplan]

Good morning every one,

i engrave some medical things for costumers(pharma,hospitals.....)I`ve got the HPDF.and its no problem to do this.

[Joe Pelonio]

Slightly OT maybe, but I have done several jobs for medical labs. Mostly cutting acrylic to make stands for test tubes or medicine bottles for injections. Other work I do for hospitals is directional signs and parking signs, I don't really have any contacts in the kind of work asked about.

[Mike Null]

I have also done inventory labels for molds, product ID labels, and signs.

Have also cut some acrylic assembly jigs and been requested to mark various items which I could not handle with my type of machine. (some things are best marked with an industrial CO2 laser which can use single line fonts and which can handle 200-300 pieces per hour.)

[Zvi Grinberg]

I would noty want to disclose trade or other secrets, but from the point of view of laser machine owners, there are some applications that utilize CO2 lasers.
One application is precise drilling and cutting of a certain organ object. The problem there is that the items deviate from avaerage height. Since the sepcific case isabout very precise cut and drill, the biggest challenge is to find a way to still cut each individual at precise energy, speed and Z height. HPDFO would have been a good value, if not the variable nature of the objects. There are several tricks though to achieve relatively efficient results.

Another application is to drill holes and cut special very thin glass foils. We just did that. We needed to prepare a special fixture that would hold a batch of tiny plates.

There are of course those who want to mark stainless steel tools. These are more common applications. HPDFO could be helpful here for those who prefer not to use Cermark

[Rob Bosworth]

The market for marking medical components and accessories can be a very lucrative business. Manufacture's of medical devices use some outside jobshops to mark their parts. Some parts might only need a logo, other's need more personal or serialized markings. Some parts just need to be marked and returned to the manufacture or end user. Other parts require very tightly controlled paperwork and Q/C tracking to follow the part forever. You have to decide how involved you want to be or can be in documenting process.

Generally, anything that is inplanted in the body will require a very detailed paper trail. For instance, look at the problems some of the pacemaker manufactures' are having tracing defective wire connections in OLD pacemakers. The record trail that is being investigated basically shows every process and everyone who has handled that assembly from design to inplant. Not every business is set up to be able to follow up on the bureaucracy or auditing needed to satisfy the medical requirements.

But there are plenty of parts made that do not require the extensive paper trail. There are plenty of plastic parts: hearing aids, catheters,..., glass parts: glass slides, beakers, pipettes,.... and metal parts: surgical instruments, equipment identifiers, as well as inplantable devices.... that require identification marking.

You could start talking to any local medical facilities about needed things tagged or labeled with identification plates, or name badges. Almost each department likes to have the equipment tagged so that piece of equipment does not wander off to another unit. Many people like to have their stethoscopes I.D.'d so that they do not wander off.

Beyond that, look around your community to see if their are any medical device manufacturing companies or medical device/ supply distribution companies. Yellow pages might be a good way to start. Even referrals from the local medical personel might help in the search. There are a number of medical device trade shows that can provide you with contacts for all sides of the industry.

Most of all, keep an open mind when trying to get started in the industry. Rather than respond with "I can't do that because we have never done that" , reply with, "well, we have not doen that, yet, let's see what it does." Who knows, you might eventually not have enough time to do any more trophy plates.