All-electric injection forms part of £7m investment at UK medical moulder
Owen Mumford, a UK-based supplier and manufacturer of specialist medical devices, has invested in all-electric injection moulding presses for its 'Phase 5' manufacturing facility, now close to completion, at the firm’s Chipping Norton site.
The all-electric moulding presses include five Fanuc Roboshot moulding machines and four Fanuc six-axes robots.
The presses form part of a £7million investment by Owen Mumford that the company says represents its vision of future needs for medical device manufacturing excellence. Comprising a 1,000 sq mt clean room area, in a purpose-built facility, Owen Mumford says its manufacturing team has maximised on this 'ground-up' opportunity to project design and implement the latest technology and thinking for clean room manufacturing facility design.
Group Operations Director, Modestino Graziano, commented: "Best in class manufacturing facilities, along with a clear focus on manufacturing excellence are minimum requirements for our industry. We based 'Phase 5' on the high standards our clients expect, on the requirements to meet future industry regulations and our team's extensive experience of manufacturing for this sector.
"For example, the facility has been developed with energy savings in mind; and from our past experience of Fanuc Roboshot all-electric injection moulding machines, we know the total cost profile of electric machines is lower than that of hydraulic machines".
Fanuc says the five new Roboshot S-2000 i250B injection moulding machines installed at the site are ideal for the precise nature of medical device delivery systems where thin wall and ultra precision moulding is required. Incorporating its newly developed high power servo motor into the injection unit allows injection speeds of up to 1,000 mm/s to be achieved, together with accurately monitored high clamping pressure.
High-quality and stable moulding is maintained by precise backflow monitoring, metering and the rigid construction of the machines. Overall machine control is provided by Fanuc's latest control technology based on its CNC control platform.
Adding to the capability of 'Phase 5' will be the new Fanuc M-20iA robots, which have six-axes flexibilty in order to undertake load and unload tasks from the moulding machines together with second operation assembly tasks if required. Using the same control platform as the Roboshot moulding machines, the M-20iA robots have a payload capacity of 20 kgs, which Fanuc says provides adequate scope for future end of arm tooling requirements.