Monitoring & metering P


roducts in the medical technology sector have to meet extremely high manufacturing require-ments: processes must not only be very precise, but also repeatable and stable so that production results can be verified and undesirable influences can be excluded. Sartorius is a German corporation that can look back on a lengthy tradition of leadership in products for the laboratory and pharmaceutical segments. Founded in 1870, this exchange-listed enterprise operates across the globe from its headquarters in Göttingen. Sartorius supplies laboratories and research facilities with specialised equipment such as high-precision balances, filtration units and centrifuges. The company’s Liquid Handling segment is located in the far north of Europe. Its mechanical and electronic pipette systems are developed and parts are manufactured in Helsinki. These products alone account for around six million individual parts every year, and Sartorius has another Finnish facility where it produces vast numbers of pipette tips – over 600 million units per year.


ACCURATE PREDICTIONS OF PART QUALITY WHILE THE PROCESS IS STILL LIVE Tomi Villilä is one of the ‘plastics supremos’ at Sartorius in Helsinki. As development manager for Injection Molding, he shoulders responsibility for the quality of the injection molding processes for as many as 50 individual parts that make up one pipette. In response to ongoing developments, he and his strong team recently began using Kistler’s ComoNeo process monitoring system with the ComoNeoPREDICT function. Online quality prediction allows forecasting of part quality during the injection molding process, based on numerous learned process parameters and related part-specific quality criteria. Villilä has garnered over ten years


THE COMONEOPREDICT PROCESS MONITORING FEATURE


To enhance the accuracy of results from online quality prediction, Kistler has integrated an additional function that delivers a variety of benefits:


Stasa QC • Lean and intuitive DoE software, tailored to the injection molding process • Simulates the relationship between actuating variables and quality in injection molding


• Determines the optimal operation point • Makes production start-up faster because less time is needed for trials and tests


Operation point navigator • Ensures consistent part quality thanks to process stabilisation


• Ideal for optimising live production processes


• Improves process knowledge because relationships between setting values and quality are determined automatically


DoE interface


• Reduces additional effort and expense on documentation


• Automatically stores quality-relevant process variables based on cavity pressure • Automatically evaluates process stability


Online quality prediction based on cavity pressure • Predicts underlying part-specific quality characteristics during the injection molding process


• Automatically evaluates good/bad parts to reduce pseudoscrap • Provides support for operators with determining and optimising the process • Cuts costs thanks to shorter setup times and cycle times, lower scrap rates and predicted process capability


28 April 2023 Instrumentation Monthly


UNDERSTAND MORE, ACHIEVE MORE


Sartorius has opted for Kistler's ComoNeo process monitoring and control system for high-precision quality monitoring of plastic parts for pipette systems at its facility in Helsinki. The ComoNeoPREDICT functionality delivers accurate forecasts of part quality while the injection molding process is still live – providing a sound basis for intelligent monitoring.


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