Patent ID: 7836847

Claim:
A system for use in applying a coating of a desired material onto at least one medical implant component, said system comprising: a thermal sprayer, a rotatable holding fixture having a plurality of mounting stations each operable to securely hold at least one medical implant component, said fixture being operable to rotate about a central axis and each of the mounting stations being operable to rotate about a respective mounting station axis, said central axis being removed from each mounting station axis, wherein said fixture is arranged adjacent to the thermal sprayer so that during operation the desired material can be sprayed by use of the thermal sprayer upon an outer surface of each of the medical implant components while the fixture rotates about the central axis and while simultaneously therewith each of mounting stations having a respective medical implant component rotates about the respective mounting station axis; and a control device to control rotational speed of the fixture and to control rotational speed of a number of the mounting stations such that a ratio of the rotational speed of the fixture to the rotational speed of the number of the mounting stations is a whole integer to avoid build-up of sprayed desired material on a substrate or substrates of the respective medical implant component or components, in which a minimum rotational speed of the fixture is defined as follows: minimum rotational speed of the fixture=(linear speed of medical implant component)/ (π)(diameter D) wherein the linear speed of the medical implant component represents a speed at which cracking of a coating layer on the cuter surface thereof is avoided during the operation, and the diameter D is equal to twice a distance from a center of a respective mounting station to a center of the fixture, and in which the rotational speed of the respective mounting station is defined as follows: mounting station rotational speed=n(π) (D/w) (the fixture rotational speed) wherein D is equal to twice the distance from the center of the respective mounting station to the center of the fixture, w represents a diameter or width of a flame of particles projected from the thermal sprayer, and n represents a number of revolutions of the respective component while the respective component crosses a path of the flame during a single revolution of the fixture.