MEDICAL | INNOVATION
Right: Husky is adapting the technology of its medical specialist moulds business Schöttli to meet specific application requirements
Husky says it strives to always offer maximum reliability, efficiency and productivity. “To that end, we are also always looking to improve productivity per square metre of factory space, such as through the use of stack moulds. Technology has developed very rapidly in recent years, but we are still seeing improve- ments in ease-of-use for moulders. Additionally, we continue to find ways to improve on the total cost of ownership for our customers, enabling them to produce the highest part quality at the lowest cost per part.” Husky highlights a number of specific issues that
Below: In the production of pipette tips, the free
accessibility of the tie-bar-less mould area in Engel E-victory machines makes it possible to move the automation particularly close to the clamping unit
require new solutions in medical applications. These include: reliable and efficient processing of enhanced resins; ease-of-use and simplicity of solutions due to lack of skilled technicians/ operators; wear mitigation of mould components due to misalignment of the mould halves in the injection moulding machine; enhanced design for manufacturing (DfM) service to ensure risk mitiga- tion at an early stage of product development; and increased output per footprint. Husky adds: “We are continuously improving and adapting our Schöttli hot runner and mould technol- ogy to fit to specific application requirements and to achieve compact mould layouts, increasing produc- tivity and product quality. We have developed monitoring of mould alignment, reducing mould wear and tear from misaligned mould components. Our enhanced engineering services, including rheology, mechanical and thermodynamic analysis and simulations, help our customers mitigate risk in both their products and the moulding process. In addition, our Schöttli Academy provides training and apprenticeship programmes for the next generation of mouldmakers.” Husky recently installed 12 systems for Pascal
Medical for the manufacture of sterile, disposable medical products in Dubna, Russia. This involved collaborating on the planning of the 10,000 m² factory, syringe design development, and selection of assembling machines, cleanroom suppliers and personnel. Husky says that working with a single source supplier minimised operational risk for Pascal Medical, allowing the organisation to focus on producing the highest quality parts. Engel, Waldorf Technik and Wellmei Mold of Dongguan, China have collaborated on precision medical parts and developed an integrated production cell manufacturing pipette tips under cleanroom conditions to specific requirements of Chinese processors. The companies say that because the pipette tips are used in fully automat- ed analytical systems in medical diagnosis, reproducible product quality is the highest priority. However, as mass-produced parts, they are also under especially high cost pressure. In order to achieve a stable process and high economic efficiency, the system partners integrated a tie-bar-less E-victory injection moulding machine from Engel with a 32-cavity hot runner precision mould from Wellmei and high-speed automation from Waldorf Technik in an extremely compact space. The free accessibility of the mould area makes it possible to move the automation particu- larly close to the clamping unit of the E-victory injection moulding machine. The electric injection unit on the hybrid machine
ensures high precision when injecting the plastic melt. To additionally compensate for fluctuations in the ambient conditions and raw material, Engel’s iQ weight control is also used. The assistance system from the Engel Inject 4.0 programme analyses the pressure in real time during the injection process and compares the measured data with a reference cycle. For every shot, the injection profile, the switchover point and the holding pressure are automatically adjusted to the current conditions and the injected melt volume kept constant throughout production. This is a proactive way of preventing rejects. The automation solution developed by Waldorf
22 INJECTION WORLD | September 2018
www.injectionworld.com
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