Pharmaceutical Products Assembly & Packaging - Leak Testing
DMW Automation engineers and staff personnel designed and built custom automated machine equipment to replace previously-supplied equipment from another supplier, providing the customer with a quality U.S.-built and serviced automation platform to sell alongside their laboratory and other leak testing equipment.
Overview
- Location: Southeast
- Industry: Instrumentation
- Products/Services: Vials Leak Testing
- Primary SIC Code: 9997
- Annual Sales: Unknown
- Technology: Indexing and Continuous Motion
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| Main test dial. |
Situation
DMW Automation was approached by a manufacturer of leak testing equipment, lab instruments, and laser heads, to build a new product handling platform. They had previously contracted with a different manufacturer to develop equipment they could sell as a product, however, they were not happy with their partnering experience and the delivered equipment did not produce the results they required. One of their customers, a major pharmaceutical company, recommended they contact DMW Automation to obtain the automation assistance they required.
Action
DMW Automation personnel obtained the customer’s testing requirements as well as their laser head mechanical specifications, and our engineers designed a custom solution.
Our solution was to use a servomotor-driven indexing rotary machine, with vacuum tooling, to accurately control the vials and present them to the leak testing devices in the specific, programmable amount of time required to test each application. For that purpose we brought the customer’s laser sensing systems to DMW Automation’s factory for integration into the equipment to create a complete product with a single operator control interface operating both the customer sensors and equipment mechanisms.
We brought vials into our plant and tested them with the laser sensor to confirm our design repeatedly passed and rejected individual vials as required, while also verifying that good and rejected vials were brought to the correct exit conveyors. Our design provided a reject lane (failed-test or no read) and accommodated a wide range of vials sizes, from 3 cc to 1000 cc. We conducted additional testing to ensure the equipment handled the vials without damaging them.
After fabrication and assembly, we conducted Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) with the customer present and received their approval to ship the equipment. We shipped the equipment and assisted with installation.
Results
Our custom design provided the customer with a sellable fully-automated product line meeting their specific URS (user requirements specifications), and allowing them to expand their business opportunities by selling a line of automation equipment, in addition to their testing equipment, generating significant new incremental revenue. To date, we have sold over 15 automated platforms in the United States and Europe, and DMW Automation is now developing higher output machines for the evolving needs of the market place.
For more information about DMW Automation’s custom automation equipment and systems services, please call us at 847-437-0665 or email us at sales@dmwautomation.com.
