Medical conference to get to the heart of technical moulding

Engel is holding a series of events on medical moulding during 2014, with live demonstrations and specialist lectures covering a number of challenging areas including cleanliness, maximum product safety and economic efficiency.

The ‘med.con’ events, which started last month, are being held at a number of venues across Europe, with the UK conference scheduled for Warwick in November.

"The Engel med.con has established itself as a kind of networking event for plastics manufacturers in the field of medical technology," commented Christoph Lhota, Head of the Medical Business Unit at Engel in Schwertberg. "Our customers and partners use this platform to exchange ideas and to keep informed about current trends and strategies, as well as innovative products and methods.”

At this year’s event, Engel is focusing on how process integration can reduce unit cost, demonstrated live by producing drip chambers for transfusions with an integrated filter on an Engel e-victory 160 combi injection moulding machine with an integrated multi-axis robot in a single work step.

"We expect this process to revolutionise the production of multi-component hollow bodies with or without inlay," said Lhota. "Starting with plastic granulate and the prefabricated filters, we receive ready-to-use drip chambers within 12 seconds. In the past, several independent work steps and at least two machines were necessary for this."

Engel says the live exhibit also further demonstrates how process integration reduces the risk of contamination in medical technology, with the machinery presented in a clean room design.

In a second highly-automated manufacturing cell, Engel is producing needle holders for pens will be produced on an all-electric e-motion 160 injection moulding machine. Together with partner companies, Braunform and Hekuma, Engel says this machine demonstration shows how cavity numbers can be increased also in medical technology without risking process stability and component quality.

In addition to the machinery demonstrations, the med.con event includes specialist lectures, a partner fair with companies from the fields of mould manufacturing, automation, peripheral units, raw materials, and clean room technology, as well as a networking event.

Further details and registration, email: medical@engel.at