Sumitomo (SHI) Demag develops injection moulding system

Published: 28-Apr-2011

The compact all electric cleanroom production system is ideal for medical micro components

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery of Schwaig, Germany, has produced an all electric compact cleanroom production system for medical micro components.

The German / Japanese mechanical engineering company says the machine provides high reliability and availability in the production of precision components for medical, diagnostic and pharmaceutical applications under cleanroom conditions.

The IntElect machines, with their precise and sensitive drives and automation integrated in the machine, satisfy specific requirements with zero-defect production. The smallest model in the IntElect series, an IntElect 50-45 with a clamping force of 500 kN.

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag designed and developed the production cell in a joint effort with several partners. The four-cavity cold runner mould with a tunnel gate was designed and built by Stamm AG of Hallau, Switzerland. This established mould making and injection moulding contractor specialises in the production of particularly challenging micro mouldings from a wide variety of different plastic materials and uses a number of machines supplied by Sumitomo (SHI) Demag.

Both the cell, built according to cleanroom standards, and the laminar flow unit above the production system have been made by Max Petek Reinraumtechnik of Radolfzell, Germany. The filter fan unit (FFU) of the laminar flow unit purifies the air brought in from the outside, and provides a constant laminar air flow above the mould mounting space of the machine, which guarantees a cleanroom class ISO 7 production environment, and prevents particles from entering.

MAi GmbH & Co. KG of Küps, Germany, a specialist in automation solutions, integrated the six-axis robot from Yaskawa Europe GmbH into the injection moulding machine, whose guarding is extended by only 200 mm on the non-operator side.

This robot is suspended on the stationary platen. This design and configuration keeps the cell compact, the mass to be moved low and the robot's strokes short. It also ensures that the susceptible mouldings are far less likely to become contaminated during unloading, inspection and packaging. The mouldings are even subjected to a complete, fully automatic visual inspection within the cleanroom production cell.

Project engineers from Sumitomo (SHI) Demag provide can provide technical and organisational advice in relation to the planning, design, configuration and start-up of installations for the production of medical, optical and pharmaceutical injection moulded parts under cleanroom conditions. They offer comprehensive project support both for safety-related medical parts and for medical mass-produced or disposable items in terms of cleanroom production on injection moulding machines and also offer advice concerning tooling, automation, peripheral equipment and cleanroom technology.

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