Manufacturers of prosthetic devices rely on SHAPEGRABBER for measurement and inspection

Challenge

Depuy ORTHOPAEDICS, Inc. . Johnson & Johnson is a company that designs, manufactures, and distributes orthopedic equipment and supplies, including hip, knee, limb, trauma, bone biologics, and operating room products. Because normal function requires complex sculpted contours, components such as knee implants need to be examined by laser scanning. As DePuy develops more complex sculpted medical device components, implants and prostheses, it finds its measurement capabilities limited by the low point density and relatively slow speed of traditional contact probe technologies. Since the device is used by human patients, Depuy requires significantly higher density dot coverage to accurately capture the shapes and sizes of these complex shapes and be able to directly compare them to CAD designs.

In order to obtain high point density for precise measurement, DePuy chose SHAPEGRABBER 3D laser scanning system. The ShapeGrabber solution is proved to be faster and more versatile than other laser probe systems evaluated by Depuy, and the ShapeGrabber scanner can quickly and accurately measure the complex curves of DePuy parts.

“The SHAPEGRABBER 3D laser scanner is a faster, more versatile alternative.”

Since selecting the SHAPEGRABBER system, Depuy has found that it can quickly reconfigure the scanner to accommodate parts of different sizes, and can perform the quality assurance checks needed to ensure the correct shape and size of its small parts. “In order to fully examine our anatomical implants, we chose the non-contact method of laser scanning. Our first laser probe system was very slow and limited in function because it could only take one point at a time and measure diameter only.