Responding quickly to this sector’s requirements, in terms of prostheses and ancillary equipment is not easy. This is why Groupe Lépine, the French specialist in these areas, as well as braces and materials, including biomaterials (exporting almost half of its products) made the decision over 20 years ago to guarantee the reliability of its production process with the almost exclusive use of Mazak machines. This consists of a production cell that produces femoral heads for use in hip prostheses, which integrated a fully automated INTEGREX j-200S in summer 2021.
For basketball fans, the town of Orthez (located around 50 kilometres from Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department) was made famous by its team that rose to the top of the Pro A league many times. However in the industrial sector, there is a company that can also boast of topping a league: that of quality and response time in terms of the production of components for prostheses and ancillary equipment (instruments and surgical tools). To be precise, the Groupe Lépine factory based in South-West France – one of the two main group factories – specialising in the development and production of stems and heads for hip and shoulder prostheses.
This site with around 75 employees (almost all of whom work entirely in production) became part of the group in 2005. Fortified by expertise in precision machining stainless steel, cobalt-chrome and ceramic parts, the Orthez factory also has a stainless steel and titanium forge. This is a rarity for this type of mid-sized business. A number of the production steps are usually subcontracted to enable the company to concentrate on the central business activity and the areas of expertise with the greatest added value.
Leaving aside the current context of a raw material crisis and the domino effect that this has had on the supply chain, many would like to be in the position of Groupe Lépine, whose success lies in its control of the process from A to Z. “At Orthez, we have a forge and heat treatment machinery, which make us much less dependent on subcontractors and much more reactive, especially as our end customers sometimes ask us to produce prostheses and associated instruments at very short notice,” explains Nicolas Bruneau, Industrial Director for Groupe Lépine, who works across all of the group sites. “We also have a foundry in Germany.”
The need for reliable and efficient machines
So, who are these end customers? They are the surgeons themselves. They ask “Maison Lépine”, as it was called until 1991, a family business that was founded in 1714 and whose head office is located in Genay, on the outskirts of Lyon. Now with eight production sites, the largest of which are located in the French towns of Genay and Orthez, the group employs around 500 people (including subsidiaries). Annually, it produces hundreds of thousands of prostheses (intra and extracorporeal), orthopaedic supports and braces, as well as ancillary equipment and instruments for the medical and surgical sectors. While these industry sectors have been growing for many years, they are also subject to increasingly severe and restrictive regulatory controls on the production process.
Since 2019, Groupe Lépine has been committed to a strategy of huge, systematic investment in production tools in order to respond more effectively to the growing demand for materials destined for medical use, particularly in the area of implants and ancillary equipment. To support this dynamic investment, the group has set its sights on Mazak machines for many years. “We have many Mazak machines.” Inside the plant, Allée Mazak (Mazak alley) is aptly named. “In 2012, the business invested in its first INTEGREX j-200, with two more in 2014 along with an FJV milling machine,” recalls Benjamin Amodeo, Process and Industrialisation Manager at the Orthez factory.
The workshop also has an INTEGREX j-200S machine for instrumentation parts for the KNEO range – ancillary equipment for knee implants – with a bar diameter of 65 mm and a bed length of 1,000 mm. Later, three other INTEGREX centers were installed in the plant in the 2010s to produce hip prostheses stems. These machines are fitted with an onboard control system that enables a unique Mazak application with a self-test function and automatic correction in the event that the path is broken. “These INTEGREX j-200 machines give us the levels of precision that we need, as well as turning and milling within one machine, thereby reducing the number of work steps,” said Jérémy Lannes, Process Technician. “These machines are very ergonomic and easy to work with.”
These INTEGREX j-200 machines give us the levels of precision that we need, as well as turning and milling within one machine, thereby reducing the number of work steps. These machines are very ergonomic and easy to work with.
Jérémy Lannes, Process Technician.
Productivity gain of more than 50%
The development of the machining equipment was paused due to a major project around heat treatment and new product development. “Then three years ago, Groupe Lépine resumed its investment policy, particularly around a femoral head production cell, an independent machining zone already equipped with Mazak towers that were installed in the 90s,” explains Nicolas Bruneau.
The Orthez site had a number of objectives for this independent cell project. The key objective was to guarantee the reliability of the process. “Due to their age, our turning centers were breaking down more and more frequently, and the cycle times were particularly long compared to what can be achieved with today’s machines,” explains the Process Manager. “Above all, we wanted to automate this line as much as possible in order to strengthen site productivity. Finally, it was important to be able to increase our production capacity, particularly in order to meet increased order volumes as quickly as possible.”
Nicolas Bruneau goes on to explain that this femoral head independent production unit project involved both the machine and the process. “We wanted to permanently improve our production processes, as we have been able to go through the industrialisation of head production, in order to achieve our objectives (that is to double our revenue between now and 2025).”
The decision was therefore made to purchase a Mazak INTEGREX i-250H S, a twin-spindle center with a 1,000‑mm bed, a bar feeder and an automatic parts conveying system. Equipped with a 74 tool magazine and cutting tool breakage detection, the machine was installed in the factory in July 2021. The spindle is tested using a Renishaw touch sensor to ensure that the precision of the femoral head machining is maximised. Also, a gripper then holds the part and transports it in a lift, placing the head in a specific tray. Alongside the machining strategy created with the cutting tools manufacturer, the huge amount of equipment and the ability to mill and turn on just one machine explain the significant increase in productivity for this femoral head production cell, with a reduction in machining time of over 50%!
“The whole machine process was considered and developed with the Mazak Applications department, which includes eight people who work at Villejust, at the French national head office for the group,” explains Jérémy Gornet, a Mazak Commercial Engineer. Benjamin Amodeo adds that with Mazak and specifically Jérémy Gornet, “we talked a lot; this project created a real partnership between us. Mazak took a firm hold of the project, which is why we always place all our trust in their teams. This is critical to our business.”
