Clean room technology for micro parts

• Injection moulding of micro parts under clean room conditions
• Production of PEEK micro catheter with single-cavity mould
• Special two-step screw-and-plunger injection unit for thermally homogeneous melt injection

Wittmann Battenfeld has become well established in medical technology over recent years primarily with its clean-room-compatible injection moulding machines. During the current fiscal year, the company has further ramped up its activities in this area and installed a clean room cell at its Kottingbrunn plant. At Compamed, the company will once more demonstrate its medical technology expertise by producing a micro catheter on a machine from the MicroPower series specially designed for injection moulding small and micro parts.

Special Feature: two-step screw-and-plunger injection unit

A special feature is the two-step screw-and-plunger injection unit with a shot volume range from 0.05 to 4 cm3. Through this injection unit, thermally homogeneous melt is injected, resulting in high-quality parts with stable production and short cycle times.

Production of PEEK micro catheter with single-cavity mould

On a MicroPower 15/10 injection moulding machine, a PEEK micro catheter is produced with a single-cavity mould supplied by Ernst Wittner GmbH, Austria, which is used for taking samples from peripheral tissue. In practice, this micro catheter, made by the Austrian company Biegler GmbH, is used by Joanneum Research Health to take measurements for drug development. The parts weigh about 20 mg and are 3 x 3 x 2 mm in size.

Full-fledged clean-room production cell

The machine on display comes as a full-fledged clean-room production cell, equipped with a rotary disk, parts removal handling device, integrated quality inspection by image processing, as well as a clean-room module, which produces class 6 clean air according to the ISO 14644-1 standard. The parts are all injected, quality-inspected and deposited inside the clean room.