Top Tool

Posted by Duane Kari, Technical Sales Support Lead, Top Tool

Raw material costs can dominate total cost of production. These days, in the case of precious metals that have properties critical to medical-grade components for implantable devices, performance comes at a steep price. Lately, manufacturing platinum iridium parts has required OEMs to pay as much as $2,800 per troy ounce. Which is one reason making complex precision parts from precious metals is no time for trial and error. Scrap can weigh (and cost) more than the material used in the component itself. Especially in the case of micro and micro-miniature components.

A parts customer, of course, pays only for material used to create each component. As a result, the percentage of contract suppliers willing to take on precious metal projects is very small. Most shops won’t touch platinum, for example. And it’s very possible that a supplier willing to work with the material doesn’t fully understand the complexity, challenge and unique risk management involved.

Top Tool, on the other hand, specializes in (and seeks out) platinum stamping projects. We have worked in the material – most frequently with medical device OEMs – for more than a decade. Each week, there is at least one platinum or platinum alloy project underway at Top Tool. After 10-plus years of learning and refining, we’ve developed and fine-tuned systems and processes for getting more from each ounce of material than less qualified, less tested parts suppliers.

One fine-tuned Top Tool approach is development of a proprietary material spec used when we procure platinum from our precious metals supplier. All precious metals are not created equal. They act and behave differently. Likewise, an off-the-shelf “mail order” material does not act the same way as a proprietary blend. Example, the Top Tool customized spec for platinum (ASTM-compliant and -certified by an independent lab) is optimized to control consistency above and beyond usual requirements. A meticulous, analytical raw material approach upfront streamlines the processes and systems used to precision stamp component parts from Platinum Group Metals (PGM).

Previously, an OEM sourced its own commodities. Today it’s the metal stampers responsibility to effectively manage and manipulate precious metals and exotic materials. First, to insulate the OEM from financial risk and complexities in dealing with a volatile commodity like platinum. But also because complex precision metal stamping – especially at the micro-component level – is a specialty that depends on being creative and innovative well upstream from the production line. The outcome is highly dependent on how the process begins . . . with the material.

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