We’ve have recently undertaken a new project with funding from Innovate UK. This is to develop a micro-moulding which will be feed into a human vein. This will enable the collection of cancer cells and allow clinicians to check the effectiveness of the patients treatment.
What is micro-moulding?
Micro-moulding, the new niche in the injection moulding industry, is the highly specialised manufacturing process that produces extremely small, high precision thermoplastic parts and components with micron tolerances. The process starts in a tooling department where a mould is created that has a cavity in the shape of the part desired. Thermoplastic resin is rapidly injected into the cavity, creating the component or part at high speed.
Micro-Moulding with Biplas
With over 40 years of experience of design and development behind us within demanding industries, we’re constantly aware of new market demands. That why, unlike other micro-moulding or injection moulding companies, we will be developing injection mould tooling to mould wall sections as thin as 0.1mm, even smaller than a grain of sand.
We have undertaken a project with our European partner to develop a micro moulding to be placed in a human vein enabling the collection of cancer cells, so enabling the clinician to check the effectiveness of the patient’s treatment.
This ground-breaking size is uncommon, and it’s only through the combination of our technology, innovation, processing and expert knowledge that we’re able to achieve this. Creating something as thin as 0.1mm is pushing the boundaries in micro moulding to achieve something so small and to mould it efficiently and precisely time and time again.
Our Class 5 Clean Room Assembly Rooms
Our materials need to be moulded in more than just a sterilised environment, they need to be manufactured in a cleanroom. All our injection moulding, including our newest injection moulding tool which will be able to mould wall sections as thin as 0.03 mm, takes place in a Class 5 Clean Room environment to achieve the particular level required for the assembly and sterilisation of medical devices.
There are nine different types of cleanrooms, with Class 1 being the most sterile, and Class 9 being the least. A large majority of our competitors in plastic injection moulding are working in either a Class 7 or Class 8 Cleanroom.
Our Class 5 Cleanroom requires 500-600 air changes per hour, and typically utilises ULPA filtration as well as including 100% ULPA ceiling coverage and raised floors.
Our Injection and Micro-Moulding Technology
As well as ensuring we have a Class 5 Cleanroom, we are developing these micro mouldings in a Babyplast 10/12, one of the smallest injection moulding machines. The Babyplast 10/12 was created as the result of thousands of applications in the medical, electronic and micro-mechanical sectors and years of research and experimentation. This machine has a 10 tonne clamping force with a 10/16mm piston plunger injection unit is used to create the mould sections as thin as 0.03 mm.
