Process innovation | technology
SSB’s SoloFlow aims to challenge steel needles
Australian company SSB technology has just supplied the first commercial production batch of its new SoloFlow medical transfer cannula, a one-piece plastic medical cannula (needle) with an internal bore diameter of just 0.6mm that is injection moulded using a novel proprietary mould and processing technology – core it. the first commercial batch of 28,600 Soloflow
cannulae was moulded by German precision mould- maker and moulder otto Klumpp on four-cavity pre- production tooling and delivered to the Serum institute of india in january. otto Klumpp, which has partnered with SSB to commercialise the coreit process technol- ogy, has since produced another batch of 25,000 of the all-plastic injection moulded products, which are said to display similar characteristics to steel alternatives but eliminate the costly process of assembling steel needles into the plastic hubs. SSB technology specialises in development of plastic
needle manufacturing technology. the company holds a number of patents related to injection moulded plastic needles, drug delivery systems and advanced moulding technologies. these include the coreit process - used in the production of the SoloFlow needle - as well as patents relating to the design and production of plastic hypodermic needles, needle tips and a drug reconstitui- tion system the company is marketing under the duodraw name. the coreit process was developed to overcome the challenges manufacturers have faced when trying to
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A new injection moulding technology has been developed for production of plastic medical needles. Injection World finds out more
manufacture high aspect ratio plastic components with small bores or lumens using traditional plastic injection moulding methods, according to SSB technology chief engineer Andreas Aeschlimann. “At present, plastic cannulae are commercially
available but their design is restricted by available plastic injection moulding and tooling technologies,” says Aeschlimann. the size of the internal bore and the length of the
cannula in current designs is likely to be determined by the need to have a mould core pin that is sufficiently rigid to withstand high injection moulding pressures without unacceptably frequent processing system breakdowns or excessive mould maintenance costs, he says. “As a consequence, current plastic cannulae are
much greater in diameter and shorter in length than steel needles. the outer diameters of commercially available plastic cannulae are generally around 3mm or bigger and the length is kept to around 10 – 15mm,” says Aeschlimann.
April 2012 | injection world 13
Above: SSB Technology’s injection moulded all plastic SoloFlow transfer cannula
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