FEAT RE FEA ATURE


CHEMICALS & P


LS & PHARMACEUT


UTIICAL S


LS


IRISHM ULDER DOUBLES CLASS 7H MOULDER DOUBLE S CLASS 7 CLEA NROOMC APACIT Y


CLEANROOM CAPACITY Trend Technol gies I eland recentl opened i s thi d I


0,000) cleanroomat facturing facility in


vestment i


s ext nsive 7,000 squar lingar,


equipment, cluding a num er o


50-tonne I tElect machi es, has enabled the com any to boost process stabiprocess stability and achieve shorter production runs


rend’s site in Ireland is the company’s ‘Centre of Excellence’ for injection moulding, and provides tooling, project management, Moldflow and Scientific Injection Moulding support to Trend Technologies sites globally.


T oj


“The Irish and UK medical device sector is in a sustained growth phase,” notes Trend’s Manufacturing Manager, Tom Kelly. “We are in the process of building another cleanroom, which when


complete in the summer will expand our cleanroom manufacturing capacity by an additional 400 square meters. This is in response to the positive outlook for the sector and the increasing demand for high quality medical devi ce components.” Items moulded on site by Trend form part of Class I, IIA, IIB and III medical devices and include wound care products, diagnostic laboratory con ventilator housings, surgi


cal handles and sumables,


stent delivery sub-components. Most of these are highly customised, so when making the investment in new cleanroom machinery Trend focused on sourcing equipment that would automate process stability and increase product integrity . Although this isn’t Trend’s first foray into all-electric machines - they


installed their first over a decade ago - Senior Processing Engineer Trevor Thornton reports that the Sumitomo (SHI) Demag IntElect’s are proving to be particularly flexible and reliable. The manufacturing site also has 32 Demag hydraulic machines.


“We knew that all-elect are more energy efficient


and better for ric machines


repeatability,” says Trev or “Yet give n that we can mould larger products that weigh from one kilo right down to 0.025 grams, geometrical tolerances can be extremely tight.”


. , To accomplish the combination of


precision and repeatability, Trend makes full use of the activeLock technology


24 24 APRI MA 201 APRIL/MAY 2018 | IRISH MAN RISH MANUFAC ACTURI RING


Trend Technologies Ireland recently opened its third ISO Class 7 (10,000) cleanroom at its extensive 7,000 square meter manufacturing facility in Mulllingar, Ireland. Trend’s capital investment in the facility and additional cleanroom space and equipment, including a number of Suf Sumitomo (SHI) Demag 50-tonne IntElect machines, has enabled the company to boost y and achieve shorter production runs


eland. Trend’s capital


the faci ty and additional cleanroomspace an d mitomo (SHI) Demag


Class 7 faster changeovers. This is only made possible by complete equipment


shift towards shorter runs. As a result we are accommodating more moulds and


standardisation and the connectivity of the machines and associated ancillary equipment. This is an evolving and


improving process that can only be mad e possible by working with aligned suppliers.” Trevor notes: “We implement Scientific Injection Moulding (SIM) principles on a daily basis and can say it’s in our DNA as part of how we set up our processes. The adoption of SIM has been made


significantly easier with the repeatability and flexibility of the IntElect machines, both in our Mullingar facility and at our other global sites. This has enabled Trend to build and seamlessly transfer tool s between sites, reducing part and process variation and proj


oject delivery lead time. ” OPENING HE DOOR


OPENING THE DOOR TO INDUSINDUSTRY 4:0 Industry 4:0 is certainly firmly on Trend’s radar and the company has been


installed on each IntElect. “We use it on every product moulded and activeLock saves us an awful lot of bother when dealing with such small shot weights. It means we don’t have to run any


decompression, which can draw air into the melt. This ultimately reduces


rejects.” Since installation, Trevor states activeLock has reduced defects in the process significantly.


The Trend team is equally


complimentary about the IntElect’s machine sequencing and how


straightforward it is to programme, even with little operator experience. Trevor explains: “Even seemingly simple components can be complex to mould. Having a HMI interface that integrates fully with the moulding system, water heaters and the robots, saves us a considerable amount of programming time. For non-standard items, we can programme in-house within a couple of hours versus several weeks. This enables us to be more responsive, achieve faster changeover times and meet evolving market demands.”


Putting into context how they see the cleanroom injection moulding contract market evolving, Tom comments: “With the continuing implementation of Lean Manufacturing and continuous


improvement, there’s been a definite Figure 2: Figure 2: The IntElect’s HMI he IntElect’s H


interface integrates fully system, water heaters


system, water heaters and the robots, saving valuable programming


and the robots, saving valuable programming ttimeime


interface integrates fully wiwith the mouldingth the moulding


Figure 1: Figure 1:


An engineer checks the device components


manufactured in TrendTrrend Technologies’ cleanroomechnologies’ cleanroom with an infwith an infrared camerarared camera


An engineer chec s the temperature of medicaltemperature of medical device components manufactured in T Te


approached by Sumitomo (SHI) Demag’s UK Managing Director, Nigel Flowers to participate in a predictive maintenance trial. “From a production perspective, we are fairly Industry 4:0 advanced and use real-time data to work smarter reducing programming complexity and production lead times,” notes Tom.


,


“By connecting machines back to our service management system and using data generated by Trend and other customers, we aim to reach a point where we can pre-empt when a unit might fail and identify trends to help our customers avoid unplanned stoppages,” adds Nigel. “Our goal is to give customers zero ma chine downtime. ” Already, the technology is improving the company’s 24-hour breakdown response time by 80%, as well as increasing first time fix rates to over 90%.


“This type of forward thinking


support, coupled with the accessibility to the right specialist when needed is why we partnered with Sumitomo (SHI) Demag for our cleanroom investments,” says Tom. “When we requested a twin- shot expert, one came from Germany. And while machine programming rarel y requires input from an engineer, we is always ready to p the phone.


help when we pick u know that someone


http://uk.sumitomo-shi-demag.eu T: 01296 739500


/ HSIRI IRISHMANUF


Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Machinery http://uk.sumitomo-shi-demag.eu


MANUFACTURING FACTURING


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