Clear cut progress

Leading medical technology company slashed downtime by 60% — and minimised costly equipment replacements — with GMA Classiccut™ 80.

Throughout their decade-long partnership, global medical technology company Smith & Nephew and OMAX have collaborated closely on equipment layout and design. 

When issues with water filtration were brought to the attention of OMAX, their team identified that poor quality garnet could be the source of the problems. 

Prior to the issues, garnet shortages were impacting the market. Like many industrial manufacturers, Smith & Nephew saw the quality of its supplier's garnet change seemingly overnight. 

The garnet abrasives they were using contained ultra-fine particles, which clogged the filters in its closed-loop water filtration system. 

This resulted in higher consumable costs and significantly more downtime. OMAX was determined to help the client eliminate its water filtration issues and reduce maintenance downtime. 

It enlisted GMA to deliver a solution. 

After discussing the client's application and proposing GMA ClassicCut™ 80 from our line of waterjet abrasives, we met 

on-site to discuss how to solve these particular challenges. 

Quality tests were conducted with GMA ClassicCut™ 80, the client's garnet and three other common garnets and GMA ClassicCut™ produced the best results. 

After witnessing the results, Smith & Nephew gave the go-ahead to run a full off-site validation test for GMA ClassicCut™ 80. 

By switching to GMA ClassicCut™ 80, Smith & Nephew reduced its filter component purchases by 75%. Previously, filters needed changing every two to three days, but since the switch, the filters last three to four weeks.

And the savings don't stop there. Determining that a low-performing, inconsistently-sized abrasive created the filtration issues eliminated the need for Smith & Nephew to purchase a new filtration system, saving $40,000 in replacement costs. 

With a history dating back 160 years, Smith & Nephew specialises in products for advanced wound management, trauma and clinical therapy, and orthopedic reconstruction — all of which demand the most stringent safety and manufacturing standards.   By Jeremy Vanderleest, GMA Americas

“Switching to GMA ClassicCut™ 80 made a huge difference in our waterjet process. We have more uptime and less maintenance on the waterjets, plus cost savings from needing fewer filters and less cleaning. Most importantly, Smith & Nephew are able to meet the demands for each shift without dealing with filtration issues."James Chan, Manufacturing Engineer, Smith & Nephew

 By Jeremy Vanderleest, GMA Americas