A medical customer asked Tech-Way Industries to provide a prototype and then engineer the tooling necessary to manufacture part of a vision system. Designed for use inside the human body, this flow shield medical assembly locks down with a knob and injects air and saline, creating a vortex at the tip of the scope to keep it clear. Debris is removed through various flow channels, all of which makes it unnecessary to constantly remove the scope for cleaning during medical procedures.
Tech-Way used their plastic injection molding equipment to produce parts and components from medical grade polycarbonate for the prototype, which were then assembled using UV gluing. The flow shield medical assembly (five to 12 mm long, 1.5″ wide, and 1.5″ high) has an overall assembly length of 13″ and a wall thickness of .010″. The prototype was required to meet stringent FDA standards and tight tolerances of ±.001″. The prototype was then finished according to SPE/SPI #2 requirements, pad printed, and packaged for sterilization/irradiation in Tech-Way’s clean rooms. Tech-Way’s prototyping and engineer-for-manufacturability tooling reduced the development cycle of this flow shield medical assembly from two years to four to six months.
Tech-Way’s medical incubation services include working closely with our customers’ designers to generate prototypes and design-for-manufacturing tooling needed to manufacture hundreds of thousands of units per year. For further information on Tech-Way’s services for the demanding medical industry, contact us today.
CNC Machining of Flow Shield Medical Assemblies Project Highlights
- Title of Job/Part
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Flow Shield Medical Assembly
- Capabilities Applied/Processes
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Plastic Injection Molding Services
UV Glued
- Length
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5 to 12 mm
- Width
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1.5 in.
- Height
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1.5 in.
- Overall Assembly Length
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13 in.
- Wall Thickness
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.010 in.
- Tightest Tolerance
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± .001 in.
- Material Used
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Medical Grade Polycarbonate
- Material Finish
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Pad Printing
SPE / SPI #2 Finish
- Secondary Operations Applied
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Assembly
Packaged for Sterilization / Irradiation
- Industry for Use
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Medical
- Volume
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100,000 pieces/year
- Standards
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FDA
- Project Scope
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They handled the prototyping and tooling.
- Engineering Work
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Worked with Customers Designers
Design for Manufacturability (DFM)
Tooling
- Product Description/Application
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This part is used for vision systems used inside the human body. It locks down with a knob and injects air/saline which creates a vortex in the tip to keep the scope clear. There are various flow channels and this allows the surgeons to not have to pull the scope out to clean them.