FDA-Approved Medical Device Assembly

FDA-Approved Medical Device Assembly

A SDC returning customer in the medical manufacturing industry updated their product line, requiring a retrofitting of their current assembly and processing machine.

Technical Components & Technologies

Bellco Feeders vibratory bowl feeding
New washer magnetic grippers
Software, machine vision, inspection and lighting updates
New slip sheet feeder
Finished box handling with tamper-proof sticker dispenser
Mechanical retooling

The Solution:

The retrofit of this machine was a quick update because the original machine was designed and built by SDC. To accommodate the second-generation medical port, the SDC team retooled the in-line feeding tracks to fit new steel washers. These feed into an 8-station servo-controlled nest for pickup by the spring-loaded magnetic grippers.

Then the grippers transfer the washers to the web and use press force to apply the washers to the stickers on the web. A vision inspection system then verifies placement. A custom cutting mechanism splits the sheets to be stacked into an infeed pocket where the first Epson SCARA robot picks-and-places the sheet, adding a slip sheet on top. These are transferred into an existing packaging machine that the SDC team modified to process a smaller box. Once packaged, the product is picked by a second Epson SCARA robot that applies a tamper seal and places the box on an angled roller conveyor. 

Machine Rate: 16 seconds per box