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Electromoules SE Inc.
Industry Segment: Medical
Electromoules SE Inc., founded in 1975 and based in Montreal, Canada, designs
and manufactures molds for the plastic injection for a variety of
industries in the area. The molds the company designs are broad in scope.
The Electromoulds product line for medical labware consists of a wide range of
products from beakers, Petri dishes, funnels and deep well plates to cryogenic
vials and medical cassettes.
The medical products industry poses unique challenges for Electromoulds. Their
customers are bound by stringent FDA compliance regulations - leaving no room
for error. Products must reach the marketplace as quickly as possible to
maximize profits before copycats arrive. In addition, customers are eager to
demo new products at medical industry tradeshows throughout the year and often
need product prototypes under a tight deadline.
Rapid response to new product development is critical to Electromoulds.
As relationships are built with customers, it is common to receive requests for
next generation products from earlier designs. Electromoulds found KeyCreator
as an ideal solution to manage the extreme precision and efficiency required
throughout the mold design and manufacturing process.
"KeyCreator is incredibly versatile, precision-oriented and easy to
use," explains Tony Creti, president of Electromoulds. "It gives me
all of the functionality of higher-end systems at a fraction of the cost, which
is really important since we're a small company."
Tribute to the Fine Art of Mold Design
One of the most challenging projects for Electromoulds involved designing
biopsy processing cassettes. One of his longstanding customers, is a
Canadian manufacturer of plastic products for the medical field
(Laboratories & Hospitals).
They approached Creti for the design and construction of a new mold
for a disposable plastic cassette to hold biopsy specimens to be studied or
stored in medical laboratories. Historically, these cassettes used steel mesh
or sponge to hold the sample inside; however, samples often fell through. In
addition, this added a costly 2nd step to the assembly process.
Electromoulds' job was to design and manufacture a more efficient and cost
effective cassette mold. The first of its kind in North America, it was
comprised of over 1,000 holes, each of which was only 1/100th of an inch (a
human hair is 1/300th).
Design and development of these cassettes involved a complex, multi-part mold
and multi-machine process. Separate molds were created to make up the base and
cover of the cassette. For the most complex model, Electromoulds had to design
and machine an eight-cavity mold for both the base and cover - a project that
required 82 separate pieces to make up the eight cavities alone.
The base and cover of the cassettes would be put together on an automatic
assembly line, so Electromoulds could not afford even the most miniscule flaw.
Any deviation could cause distortion of the mold during assembly.
This new concept took two years to move from R&D to production, with
multiple revisions and modifications between Electromoulds, Simport and its
medical laboratory clients. The geometry-based tools and technology in
KeyCreator made this design collaboration effortless.
Electromoulds continues to use KeyCreator to develop breakthrough ideas for the
medical products industry. The company can be found at
www.electromoulds.com.
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