Sono Coat Production Line
Tuinte was commissioned by the Encapson company to develop and build the first Sono Coat production line. This machine is used to coat needles for a medical application. The purpose of the special echogenic coating is to make the needle more visible to the doctor while performing ultrasound-guided surgery.
Encapson
Mechanical engineering, Engineering machines
Cleanroom environment
The Sono Coat production line is used in a cleanroom environment. The special machine is fully electrically driven so that any contamination by compressed air is avoided. Within a cycle time of 60 seconds, 11 operations are performed simultaneously. A "vision system" allows the machine to compensate for small deviations in the positioning of the needle so that maximum quality is achieved.
The blister containing the needle to be coated is pushed into a cassette, which is then placed in the machine's carousel. The carousel has room for 30 cassettes. Half of the cassettes are in a shielded space where operations are carried out. While these operations are performed, the remaining cassettes with coated needles can be safely removed and cassettes with new needles inserted.
Continuous process
The machine operates using the "one-piece-flow" system. Using recipes, the machine can easily be set up or switched to a different type of needle with the corresponding recipe. This creates a continuous process where products are loaded, processed and unloaded as a continuous flow.
