Molding & In-line assembly Automation for medical plastic components
 

By : Mr. Jignesh Bavishi, HEKUMA GmbH (Neejtech India)

About HEKUMA GmbH HEKUMA GmbH, is a German company and is a global leader in Molding Automation.. Its headquarter is located in Eching near Munich, since 1974. The hekuma is spread over worldwide like Wenden, Boston, China, Japan & India. Mr. Lothar Bakowsky is the Managing Director of the company.

HEKUMA has extensive 30 year know-how on automation for products in the medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare markets. HEKUMA GmbH is involved in developing of automation lines for the plastics industry including R &D, Design & Engineering, Manufacturing, Software Development, Assembly & System Integration. All HEKUMA automation systems comply with the highest and most complex requirements, including clean room specifications and 100 % quality assurance. High-speed side-entry robots ensure short cycle times and ensure major cycle time reduction compared to existing operations. The downstream automation turns complex customer’s requirements into simple, reliable and highly efficient solutions. The interaction between high-speed robots and testing technology assures that parts are produced efficiently and with top-level quality. Typical automation system (stand-alone) HEKUMA GmbH offers molding automation systems for small single injection molding machines up to large automation & networking In-line assembly systems for two or three injection molding machines. Functions e.g.: High speed take out, insertion of labels or metal parts or re-insertion of substrate for 2nd shot, ultrasonic welding (of filters, of assembled parts), heat staking (of filters), swaging, leak-test, label application, assembly processes, stacking, flow wrapping, automated packaging in any configuration. HEKUMA GmbH also offers customized automation and for dedicated products offers (e.g. Petri Dishes) standardized molding automation systems Need for Automation The automation system for medical components production is required for :

Quality and reliability Highly reproducible assembly process Volume of products to be assembled Cost pressures Processes difficult to perform manually Cleanroom compatibility Guaranty of quality Automation Systems For Injection Molding There are two kinds of automation system, which are as follows: 1). Up-stream automation: It’s a pre-molding preparatory work for part handling or making or shaping the input to the molding for required final out put . the typical example is insert molding. In many devices where metal part is placed inside the mold before you make an article and certain components before process. Metal die-cutting of pins prior to inserting in the connector I also example of up-stream automation 2). Down stream automation: Many a times the part or article coming out of the molding process need to be assembled with counter part, in such case the systems needed to handle the article and take it to particular station where the other part is lying and then some operation will take place to assemble them together, this is called down stream automation. Post molding handling / assembling / packaging of the articles like Petri-dish production system., where the lid and container are molded in the same mold and finally they are assembled and duly packed with polythene bag with automated system, the entire operation is done without human touch  Development Of High-Performance Automation For Injection Moulded Parts For the development of High performance automation for injection moulded parts there are some of the basics requirements like : Interrelation between Injection Moulding Machine (IMM), Mould and Automation - needs to be cleared at a very early stage

Safe processes, e.g. handling of a large number of parts in a short period of time - essential for the performance of upstream and downstream applications. High reliability and lifetime of the complete system Safe and gentle handling of the products - reduces scrap Optimum number of cavities for the process Short cycle times Reduce generation of particles. These particles are generated due to wear and tear and it can’t be allowed in final product and hence it has to be taken utmost care. Keep particles away from product Precision Automation Systems The design principles of automation systems are as follows: High stability, stiffness and precision, reliability and service life by welded steel tube construction of stressed components Side entry robots as basis for stiff design and elimination of unnecessary movements Centering of components Floating design Use of first class components Tests of critical components Separation of functions Parallel operations Separation of injection molding machine and automation system No transfer of vibrations of the injection molding machine to the automation system

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