Johnson & Johnson laser surgery instrument coating
Appears in 2 lectures.
Appearances across the corpus
Early-1980s consulting case. J&J's surgical instruments division wanted laser-cutting hand tools (scissors, drills, reamers) that wouldn't reflect the laser onto unintended tissue. Tom recommended anodized aluminum (oxide layer for absorption + aluminum substrate for thermal diffusion), helped them design the experiment with 4/6/8/10-micron anodized discs, and confirmed the 6–10 micron optimum.
Patent and held-harmless arrangement. Tom developed an anti-reflective surface coating for J&J laser surgical instruments to prevent burn injury from reflected laser energy. Took six months of J&J legal department to issue a hold-harmless letter.
One thing is, I never design a part. I can tell what's wrong, and I give some options for what designs could be, but I don't make the final choice. One time I developed a surgical instrument consulting for Johnson & Johnson. They do laser surgery, and metal instruments can bounce the laser off and burn the patient somewhere they didn't want to burn. I came up with a surface coating that absorbed the laser light without reflecting, and we got a patent on it. If Johnson & Johnson ever got sued, I'm not an employee — I could be sued personally. I ended up writing to Johnson & Johnson asking to be held harmless. It took six months in their legal department. They finally gave me a letter saying we'll treat you as if you were an employee — my legal fees would be paid.