devices.

Through our Innovation Center, we turn your ceramic implant systems design and manufacturing ideas into a high-quality, reliable and low cost reality. We can produce large amounts of precision parts at a very low per-unit cost using Ceramic Injection Molding (CIM) technology.

The revolutionary CIM process will give you the possibility of producing parts similar in shape to those available in plastic, while at the same time taking advantage of the advanced nanoceramics resistance and inertness.

Our technology, along with the raw materials we have incorporated, translate into a revolution in the way implantable medical devices of complex shapes are manufactured, which were very difficult or even impossible to produce until now due to their high hardness and fragility during the process.

MABB certified Quality System can provide the highest repeatability, a lower rate of rejections, and a statistical control of proven processes, thus our clients are able to avoid the dimensional inspection upon delivery.

Through our proprietary system, together with strategic partnerships, we have transformed these products into medical products that reach the most varied international markets (FDA, CE, ANMAT [National Administration of Medicaments, Food and Medical Technology of Argentina], ANVISA [National Health Surveillance Agency of Brazil], among others).

MABB’s human capital has specific and complementary knowledge.

Our engineers will help you determine whether the part you want is suitable for CIM, considering its cost and shape, and you will be offered alternative design options to get all the benefits this process can give you. CIM offers greater design freedom than many other production processes, and it significantly increases productivity by simplifying manufacturing and minimizing costs.

Thanks to CIM’s technical virtues, not only will you obtain greater stability and optimization in the manufacturing process, but also a higher-quality product, much more competitive in the market than ceramic components manufactured using traditional methods.

MABB integrates Ceramic Injection Molding (CIM), the latest technology for manufacturing ceramic parts.

This technology does not require the machining intermediate process, lowering production costs and decreasing waste materials, which contributes to protect the environment.

The old Dry Pressing ceramic parts manufacturing process is well-suited for high volume production, but is limited to simple shapes which, in many cases, must later go through machining in order to get the final shape with the desired tolerances and surface finish.

The CIM technology used by MABB can help produce parts with re-entrant angles, blind holes, internal and external threads, complex surface profiles, perpendicular holes, and intricate cavities in a single step and without intermediate processes.

A high-tech productive process for advanced ceramics.

Ceramic Injection Molding (CIM) is a process that combines two different technologies: Plastic Injection Molding and Powder Metallurgy. The process basically consists in the Ultra-High-Pressure injection of ceramic powder into a mold shaped as the part to be manufactured.

Step 1: Raw Material

The raw material to be used is a blend of very fine ceramic powder (< 15 microns) with a primary paraffin material and a secondary thermoplastic polymer. These additives are called "Binders" as they bind the components and work as the vehicle the ceramic powder uses to flow through the injection channel.

Unlike standard powder metallurgy, with which only 80-90% theoretical density can be attained, a 98-100% can be attained with CIM. This means we can achieve close tolerances and reduce costs by manufacturing small and complex parts in high-volume production.

Step 2: Molding

The pelletized raw material is placed in the injection pump hopper, where it is heated and then injected into the mold cavity at a pressure of up to 2,500 ATM. The product obtained at this stage is referred to as a "green" compact.

Mold development engineering enables the production of parts with extremely complex shapes, using special alloy steels in their construction to extend mold life performance.

When the part is taken out of the mold, even though identically shaped, it is 25% larger than the finished part due to the volumetric shrinkage it will go through when in the sintering furnace.

Step 3: Debinding

The removal of binding additives or debinding refers to a controlled thermal process carried out in a special furnace where a considerable portion of the binder is removed. The heating and cooling rate lasts 26 hours approximately and can evaporate up to 60% of the binder.

Step 4: Sintering

A very fragile “brown” compact, with a small amount of binder still attached, is the result of the Debinding stage.

The next step is introducing the part in a sintering furnace at a very high temperature. There, not only the remaining binder is removed, but the part is also shrunk until it reaches its final shape and mechanical characteristics.

Sintering is the process of heating a material below its melting point, but at a temperature high enough so as to fuse its individual particles and thus achieve densification of the material.

During sintering, the component has its volume reduced until it reaches its final shape. If the process is controlled carefully, it is possible to produce an even and repeatable contraction with close tolerances of around a hundredth of a millimeter. This renders any subsequent machining unnecessary.

MABB is a leader in the production of Yttria-stabilized Zirconia implants.

MABB is a producer of innovative projects in other areas of the industry.

Our team of renowned and highly professional Engineers at MABB enabled the expansion of our action areas into other markets and products, with the innovation and modernization of processes as our starting point.

MABB promotes and motivates devising new and innovative projects in other areas of expertise among all its members. Through our Innovation Center, we create partnerships and interrelationships with private and public players from the regional scientific field, to encourage and develop "RUN ON, RUN UP." Innovations will therefore follow one another, the search for knowledge never stops, and the application frameworks of the developed technologies keeps expanding, thus reaching the most varied areas of the industry.

The technologies and processes developed by MABB have been applied to the nuclear, health, aerospace and arms industries. Without losing MABB's focus on the development of implantable medical devices, we have taken on and completed other projects such as:

• Metal Injection Molding or MIM: This process offers design freedom unlike many other production processes based on machining with stock removal, thereby minimizing costs and increasing productivity and competitiveness. High-precision components in stainless steel, nickel-steel, copper, titanium, cobalt, and other metals and alloys can be manufactured through this process.

• Precious Metals Electrolytic Coating: Through automation technologies of industrial metal electrodeposition processes we have designed and built an automated production line for high-precision 99.9% Silver and Gold plating.

• Reabsorbable Polymers Injection: These polymers are a new generation of implants used in various trauma surgery techniques with the main benefit of a complete 3D bone regeneration after patient's bone reabsorption.