MATERIALS PREPARATION | TECHNOLOGY
Left: The Nordson
Medical Fluid Management Facility operates 48 unattended injection moulding
machines and a complement of robots which mould,
optimum conditions, so it knows how many machines can be connected to the dryer. The blenders take that information and feed the dryers. At each step of the way, the system knows the consumption rate and directs other components to make that amount of material available. Dryers can be put into idle or started automatically, and the volume of resin can be slowed down, based on demand. The system can also automatically manage two speeds for conveying, based on the recipe of the product the machine is running. There are 10-15 mould changes per day.
Material changeovers are quick. The new material is ready when the change occurs and conveyors are purged clean. A centralised vacuum at every moulding machine cleans the receiver. Total time is 8-10 minutes. In addition to mould changes, Nordson Medical maintains 100% material trace- ability on lot changes. To safeguard the integrity of the process, moulding machines are purged each time a new lot is introduced. In addition, the receivers and hoppers are cleaned, even when the same type of material is going back into a hopper. According to the company, recipe management
is the key to material changeover. The system will not pull material that is not dried to a moulding machine. It says: “The resin has to go through the cycle and meet certain conditions that are moni- tored. The temperature has to be correct and the airflow right for the specified amount of time. There is no way to override it.” The injection moulding machines inside the
clean room are arranged in rows of seven ma- chines on each side of a utility corridor. Utility corridors, which are outside the clean room, are large enough to walk through and access the various lines and pipes running between the materials-handling system and presses. There are more than 5 miles of stainless steel tubing in the
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plant. There are three connections through the clean room wall for each machine, with lines for materials, vacuum and regrind removal. The total materials handling system has four dryers and 25 drying hoppers. Normally, two dryers remove moisture from the material from 12 hoppers and the other two handle 13 hoppers. If demand drops, dryers transition to an idle state automatically. If an alarm goes off at night and one dryer shuts down, the other two can run all 25 hoppers. Nordson Medical adds that it is important for all dryers to run all the time. This avoids a long period when a dryer is turned on and has to get up to operating temperature and stabilise the material. Hoppers are generally dedicated to a specific material. The materials handling system tracks material into and out of the blenders so that only validated material goes into a hopper for drying. Once the material is dry and the handling system verifies that temperature and airflow requirements have been met, three automatic Easylink coupling stations direct the resin to a pumping station so that any material that is ready for processing can be delivered to any injection press. Material is also weighed at the Pureflo receiver on the machine and that information is also used by the materials handling system.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.conairgroup.com �
www.dri-air.com �
www.maguire.com �
www.moretto.com �
www.motan-colortronic.com �
www.sp-protec.com �
www.wittmann-group.com �
www.labotek.com �
www.simar-int.com �
www.piovan.com
March 2018 | INJECTION WORLD 53
assemble and package 1.2 million parts per day in a large clean room operation
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