Tecvac coatings at MEDTEC
The Medilink West MIdlands stand at this year's MEDTEC - number 918/922 - will feature Tecvac's range of Nitron coatings for implants and instruments.
Tecvac Limited will show a complete range of bio-compatible, wear resistant, high lubricity coatings on the Medilink West Midlands’ stands 918/922 at MEDTEC 2008, NEC, Birmingham, UK, 13-14 February 2008. Tecvac Ltd, part of the Wallwork Heat Treatment Group, based at Swavesey, Cambridge, UK specialises in Nitron coatings using 'biologically inert’ ultra hard materials such as titanium nitride, and bio-compatibles such as pure gold and silver, to coat implants, medical instruments, probes and accessories.
Tecvac has also recently developed a set of new, low temperature plasma processing technologies that allow plastic surfaces to be sterilised, coated or modified to the highest clinical standards, to ensure biocompatible solutions.
Tecvac offers a full range of metallurgical and analytical services supported by the latest heat treatment techniques with controlled environments and advanced cleaning systems to ensure that any implants, probes or core materials used for components or instruments can be coated to the best performance standards.
Tecvac's flexible low friction coatings replicate the smoothest mirror finish and have been specified in knee and hip applications for very long periods, with complete clinical histories.
Tecvac's PVD coating technology allows very thin, high integrity, high adhesion coatings of very hard and often very lubricious materials to be applied to metal surfaces, including titanium, steel, nickel and aluminium. These coatings, between 1 and 30 (or more) microns, extend from super-hard Titanium Nitride (TiN) and Chromium Nitride (CrN) - some three times as hard as high quality chrome plate - to highly lubricious (and extremely hard) diamond-like carbon coatings with very low coefficients of friction, as low as 0.01.
These DLC coatings are both inert and highly wear-resistant, with hardness values of up to 4500 HV (45 GPA), and are more than four times as hard as best chrome plate. DLC coatings are compatible with human tissue, with a unique combination of lubricity and high hardness which can radically improve the performance of implants, prostheses, moving parts of medical instruments and artificial joint components.
Tecvac’s PVD technology also allows many other elements such as molybdenum, yttrium, carbon, aluminium, gold and silver and various carbides or nitrides to be deposited to meet special requirements.
