Do your own Titanium Anodizing!   

Stop wasting money on Outsourcing and take control with your own Titanium Anodizing machine. In this installment we will demonstrate the profits and benefits that can be yours when you install a Ti Anodize system in your company.

The Case for In-House Titanium Anodizing:

“Exhibit A”  Outsourcing Is Only a Temporary Solution.

The cost to outsource titanium anodizing can be painful. But all too often the high cost of anodizing titanium is accepted as a necessary evil by management because of the tremendous profit potential of the finished product. As such many choose not to consider doing their own anodizing. But this attitude is short sighted at best and a major blunder at worst. The lure of getting into machining titanium medical devices is bringing more and more high tech machining operations into the field. Saturation of the market is inevitable, both foreign and domestic companies are joining the market.

As such you can expect there will be a great deal of downward pressure on the retail price of titanium implants in the near future. Those firms who fail to take advantage of reducing a significant cost of producing parts (i.e. outsourcing their anodizing) will see the cost of out-sourcing rise relative to the falling market prices of the products they sell. And when this occurs they will not have time to react to market conditions – remember the semiconductor industry? The real movers and shakers in this field are those who take the initiative in R&D and get their firms positioned to play both the ups and downs of this dynamic market when purchasing their tooling.

In response to downward pricing pressures and increases in fixed costs, some firms may attempt to pressure their anodizing vendors to reduce prices. But the truth is that putting pressure on job shop anodizers to reduce their costs will not be successful. This is because titanium anodizing, while profitable from an individual part perspective does not represent the lion’s share of sales for a typical job shop. Job shops on average realize net profits of between 3 to 8%. To expect them to drop their prices by a significant percentage, say 20%, is unrealistic.

Exhibit “B”  In-House Titanium Anodizing Saves On Outsourcing

The prices that job shop anodizers charge is sky-high in comparison to what it actually costs to finish the parts. Take a standard bone screw for example… The part is about 1.5″ long by 3/32″ diameter. I have seen device companies pay from $0.50 to a $1.20 US per part. The cost to anodize that same part in-house can average less than 10 cents including labor! This means that if you produce 5,000 bone screws in a month, you can pay for the cost of a $60,000 anodizing module in less than one year! And this is only for one product. If you produce dental implants in the tens of thousands per month plus orthopedic devices your payback can be accomplished in just a few months!

Exhibit “C” In-House Titanium Anodizing Saves Production Time and Handling

The time it takes to anodize one part or a thousand parts is less than one hour from start to finish! This includes cleaning and anodizing. The steps are simple and repeatable. No more waiting weeks to get your parts back from a vendor. “Hot Jobs” that demand fast delivery are no longer an issue. If you can machine the parts quickly you can anodize them even faster!

Summary: Titanium Anodizing Makes Sense!

So doing your own Titanium Anodizing gives you greater control, makes you more profit per part and increases your productivity and speed of delivery. This makes doing your own anodizing a smart business decision. For most builders of medical devices who do their homework, anodizing surgical and dental implants in-house makes all kinds of sense. In fact, Titanium Anodizing is pretty much a “no-brainer” for most operations!

Medical Anodizing Process

by Ken Emilio