ARTICLES

Forefront Medical, a specialty contract manufacturer with a focus in disposable diagnostic, drug delivery and medical device systems, recently designed and molded a plastic valve set that was functionally equivalent to the metal valve set currently used in an invasive medical device. This article looks at the challenges encountered and addressed in that process.

It’s no secret that medical devices are getting smaller. Implants, tubing and drug delivery systems now often require injection molders capable of fabricating parts at a micro level. The smaller the part; the more complex the injection molding process since material behaves differently in smaller shot sizes. Forefront Medical Technology has experience with both standard and micro molded products. This white paper describes the product development and process complexities found in micro molding in greater detail, plus looks at how these capabilities were successfully applied in a recent micro molding project.

Medical manufacturers of single-use products have a dual challenge: achieving high levels of quality while maintaining competitive cost. From an injection molding perspective, mold design and equipment selection ultimately determine whether or not those goals are achieved. Cost targets, projected volumes, the raw material required, and unique product features have impact on mold cavitation strategy, design of the gates and runner system, amount of automation within the mold, optimum tonnage of the molding machine, and the degree of automation in the de-molding process. The key question becomes: how can a product development team and sourcing personnel who are not expert in injection molding, best understand their options and make the correct choices in mold design?

Medical device product development can be a lengthy and complex process. However, there are areas where a technically seasoned contract manufacturer can help significantly cut time to commercialization. This article looks at the product development process at Forefront Medical Technology and the steps it has taken to drive its average customer product development time down to an average of eight to nine months.

Forefront, which focuses on disposable diagnostic, drug infusion and medical device systems, has a simple metric it uses to achieve its Lean manufacturing objectives: Customers drive the key performance indicators and must see a cost benefit. Achieving that goal requires a holistic focus on quality and efficiency, since cost reduction is achieved through faster product development cycles, optimized tooling and automation strategy, robust supply chain management, manufacturable products, superior quality and efficient logistics. It’s not surprising that Lean manufacturing principles are used as a foundation for this effort.

At Forefront Medical Technology, a specialty contract manufacturer with a focus in disposable diagnostic, drug infusion, and medical device systems, a number of design spins and tooling iterations are key performance indicators (KPIs) for the design team. The team embraces Lean manufacturing principles not only in terms of design for manufacturability (DFM) best practices, but also in terms of eliminating non-value added activity from its overall process, thereby shortening the product development cycle.

Forefront Medical Technology explains the five ways your injection moulding supplier can take time and cost out of product development.