Medical injection molding is one of the main industry sectors in the US. Different from another type of injection molding, medical injection molding needs tighter and stringent control to prevent failure. This injection molding is focusing on producing medical devices so that it needs a high detail and accuracy. The high control is required to ensure that the products manufactured meet the standard for medical equipment.
Medical injection molding has become one of the most important industries since it supports the development of the medical industry. Since it needs high detail, medical injection molding company should be able to create the design, develop the tooling, general molding facility, make testing, and also make changes in tooling as it is needed. With these steps, it is hoped that this manufacturing is able to provide a high quality medical components.
The process of medical injection molding is typically the same with common plastic injection molding. The plastic pallet is firstly melted in the heated cylinder and it is forced to the mold to be shaped to the designed shape. However, it needs a high consistency in manufacturing process. In addition, the quality control is highly needed to ensure that it can create a high quality product. Precision is quite essential for this case. In order to meet specific requirements, there are some important things to control.
The raw material
Ensuring the quality of the material for medical injection molding is very important. Different material has different viscosity causing the difference on the molding process and molded rubber part. Reground plastic is very rarely used for medical application. Instead, material with high chemical resistance will be very useful.
The injection mold
In medical injection molding, this is very crucial to control. With a properly designed mold, the consistent surface temperature can be achieved so that every plastic which is injected to the mold can be processed with consistent conditions. The difference in the pressures and temperatures of the mold can cause the plastic to get smaller or to fill out differently. This condition can further cause the slight variance in the products. When it is used for medical applications, this difference can cause a big problem.
In addition to the inspection on the material and the process of medical injection molding, there are some other things to consider, the tooling. It is a fact that the tooling has tendency to wear overtime. Thus, ensuring the quality for the injection molding is quite essential. It can possibly cause the product produced has lower quality.
The injection molding machine
In order to work properly, the molding machine should be optimized for steady and consistent parameters from one cycle to another one. With a proper maintenance and inspection, you will be able to produce a consistent product. Mostly, modern machines are able to meet this requirement. With a correct injection mold design, the parts can automatically eject from the mold. With automatic cycle, the machine will work consistently for you. This is very important for medical injection molding to ensure the consistent molding services.
Measurement
The measurement needs a high consistency for medical injection molding. Although it seems so simple, yet it has possibility of measurement error causing significant variation. One of the methods which are commonly used for reducing the risk of variation is gauge R&R Study. It can help to perform proper operation and know the applications which can work best for them.
Process of monitoring
Commonly, today’s machine is enabled with built-in monitoring which can save the historical data of each shot as well as create the printout. However, there is more accurate way for monitoring the consistency of the shot which is known by in-cavity pressure transducers. This is able to measure the pressure of cavity for each shot so that you can ensure that the molded part of the medical injection molding will stay consistent.
