Development of a Hybrid Thermoplastic Forming Process for the Manufacture of Curvilinear Surgical Blades From Bulk Metallic Glass

Abstract

A hybrid thermoplastic forming process involving sequential micromolding and microdrawing operations is developed to manufacture the multifacet/curvilinear geometries found on most surgical blades. This is accomplished through an oblique drawing technique, i.e., drawing with a nonzero inclination angle. By applying time-varying force profiles during the drawing operation, a wide range of complex blade geometries is possible. Experiments have exhibited positive results across several multifacet and curvilinear blade geometries. Manufacturing process capabilities are quantitatively evaluated and experimental results have measured the bulk metallic glass (BMG) blade cutting edge radii to be consistently less than 15 nm, rake face surface roughness Ra to be on the order of 20 nm, and edge straightness deviations to be less than 5 μm root-mean-square (RMS) while retaining an amorphous atomic structure.