Page 71 - Plastics News May 2024

IN THE NEWS

How to Optimize Your Medical Injection Molding Process

To consistently mold components that meet quality control specs and reduce development hours for custom-
ers, follow these steps.

At a Glance parts to meet the precise specs de- practice, are rarely revisited to deter-
manded by medical device OEMs is still mine why.
n ad hoc trial-and-error pro- very much an iterative process during
cess results in high scrap the new product introduction (NPI) You may be asking yourself: If the end
rates, less throughput, and phase. This process often consists of result is a good part, who cares about
inconsistent quality. doing numerous test shots with mul- the journey to get there?

The key to improving part consistency tiple iterations of machine settings. Fair question. The hidden downside
is to refine the parameters used to pre- Because of this, many medical device of not having robust setup, operation,
pare, inject, and pressurize a shot. injection process technicians assume and tracking procedures comes down
that once they finally get to the point to cost and risk. During the NPI phase,
One of the most critical mistakes of producing a good part, the process the ultimate goal is to produce com-
molders make is adjusting more than they used to get there must be fine as ponents that consistently meet quality
one variable or phase at a time.
well. Usually, that’s not the case. control specs and reduce development
Precision molded thermoplastic parts hours for customers. While an ad hoc
are used in everything from catheters All injection molders have a defined trial-and-error process can indeed
and IVD cartridges to drug-delivery set of procedures for setting up the produce good parts, consistency often
systems. In fact, the vast majority of machine, performing test shots, and wanes and adjustments must be made
medical devices include precision evaluating results. Nonetheless, those on the fly once in production. This ul-
molded components, and few other in- procedures often get brushed aside timately results in higher scrap rates,
dustries require such tight tolerances in favor of an ad hoc “troubleshoot- less throughput, and quality inconsist-
and consistency. However, molding ing” system. The procedures, which ency.
seemed sensible in theory but not in
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