Conair simulating clean room environment

Conair Group (Booth W2143) is displaying a simulated clean room environment at NPE 2015 to show off its reinvented MedLine-brand line encompassing 170 models of medical-market equipment in five product platforms.

“We see an opportunity for a new approach to medical processors,” Larry Doyle, Conair president, said in an interview. “We have been working on this initiative for quite a while.”

The aim is to better serve customers with particular operating and compliance requirements for medical processing, Doyle said. Across all lines, Conair has more than 450 products including resin drying systems, blenders, feeders and material-conveying systems, temperature-control units, granulators and upstream and downstream extrusion equipment.

In its focused development of new products for the medical market, Conair used its in-house application expertise and the extensive hands-on processing and operational knowledge of a recent recruit, Matt Zelkovich.

“To me, we are going outside the box and outside the auxiliary equipment environment to address a processor's needs,” Doyle said.

Reinvention of the MedLine product offerings began in late 2013.

Steven Petrakis, vice president of sales for the U.S. and Canada, sees a distinct advantage in the Conair initiative.

“We got an expert on the process and can go into a customer now knowing we have the equipment,” Petrakis said. “The customer won't have to ask.”

Starting in 2006, Conair used the MedLine brand for downstream extrusion equipment producing precision tubing often for multi-lumen heart and brain catheters. Now, Conair has extended the registered MedLine trademark to include its full range of medical market auxiliaries.

Conair assembled the NPE clean room depiction in Orlando on March 18 utilizing fiberglass-reinforced-plastic wall and ceiling materials from Northwest Floor and Wall Co. of Peoria, Ariz.

The simulated environment occupies 150 square feet and provides attendees with accessibility to view MedLine and other equipment in four different levels of contamination control for ISO Class 7 and 8 clean rooms, white rooms and hybrid rooms. Examples exist of high-efficiency particulate air filtration and ductwork.

Inside the room are a mock vertical-clamp injection molding machine with an attached MicroWheel-brand desiccant-wheel dryer, a FLX-brand material handling control system, a compact K Loader vacuum material receiver in 1- and 2-pound versions, a premium Thermolator TW water temperature control unit and a manikin in protective attire, known as a bunny suit, for use in ISO 7 applications. A MicroReceiver feeds material to the MicroWheel dryer.

Through-the-wall connections link to ResinWorks resin drying hoppers and a simulated extruder. Extruded product exiting the die enters the clean room and passes into a cooling tank and puller/cutter unit.

Other MedLine equipment on display includes:

• R-PRO slow-speed conveying system: The patent-pending resin-protection conveying system moves resin at a slow speed to virtually eliminate pellet fracturing, so-called angel hair and pipe wear that high-speed vacuum conveying can cause. Conair began redesign of the system in October after learning earlier that an automotive customer wanted a system that could go to zero for 100 percent verification. Conair fine-tuned the idea and, at NPE, is showing the latest version for multiple end markets including medical.

• Material Vision Proofing system: The next-generation MVP uses a camera to provide automatic 100-percent validation that the correct material is being conveyed to the right destination. The system is set up to distribute resin from the ResinWorks system to all three of the simulated processing machines in the display.

• TB-45 TrueBlend-brand gravimetric blender: This unit is mounted on a floor stand.

Operationally, Conair has its headquarters and technology center in Cranberry Township, Pa., and is a brand of privately held IPEG Inc., also based in Cranberry Township.

Regarding Conair sales, Doyle said, “we are ahead of where we were last year, and we are bullish about the remainder of 2015.”

Manufacturing occurs at plants in Franklin, Pa., and Pinconning, Mich.

The Franklin facility occupies about 180,000 square feet for manufacturing and assembly functions. A strategic supplier leases approximately one third of Conair's space and provides extensive fabrication and painting services. 

The 50,000-square-foot Pinconning location makes larger-sized and custom downstream extrusion equipment. Conair purchased Michigan Plastics Machinery Co. of Kawkawlin, Mich., in 2007 and relocated the operation to Pinconning in 2011 after constructing a purpose-built factory, extrusion laboratory and training facility.

Conair sales and service sites are in Shanghai; Ahmedabad, India; New Taipei City, Taiwan; Singapore; and Guadalupe, México.

Zelkovich key in MedLine equipment

Matt Zelkovich is instrumental in leading Conair Group's initiative creating and expanding its MedLine-brand plastics auxiliary equipment for use in medical clean rooms and other controlled environments.

Conair hired Zelkovich of Scottsdale, Ariz., in March 2014 and named him in January as medical market general manager.

“We sought an expert who understands the medical plastics processing and clean room set up environment,” said Larry Doyle, Conair president. “Matt brings first-hand experience in outfitting clean rooms for processing.”

Zelkovich understands needs of the medical market from his experiences over three decades with West Pharmaceutical Services Inc., Textron Inc. and InteSys Technologies Inc. On numerous occasions, he connected with Conair as a customer.

Zelkovich has setup and operated eight ISO Class 7 and 8 clean rooms, conducted equipment evaluation and selection and dealt with validation of commercial-scale operations.

Zelkovich understands the difficulties, time requirements and expenses of equipping a clean room, calibrating equipment and validating processes under applicable standards and regulations. Getting compliant is too complex for most equipment suppliers, he noted.

Zelkovich's background includes design coursework in federal regulatory and ISO controls, clean room management and Six Sigma methodology. He has a certificate in strategy and innovation from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In July 2013, the U.S. patent office issued protection for Zelkovich's design of a collet mechanism and method of molding a cannula to a syringe barrel.

Wheel dryer upgraded

Conair Group suggests it has “the smallest wheel dryer available” as an alternative to compressed-air dryers and small twin-tower units.

A user can mount the compact MicroWheel-brand desiccant-wheel dryer on the feed throat of a molding machine or extruder.

Jamie Jamison, Conair drying product manager, said the introduction of Conair's Carousel Plus wheel dryer nearly 10 years ago advanced the technology but even its smallest units were too big for machine mounting. Processors found it necessary to use other less-efficient drying technologies. NPE 2015 marks Conair's launch of its upgraded version.

The new basic models — MW1 and MW2 — use brushless blowers with speed control built in and can be programmed to deliver exactly the right amount of process air flow to dry the different resin volumes.

The speed-controlled blower with an intelligent control facilitates fine-tuning of drying parameters. The control comes pre-programmed with 30 different recipes for various resins.

Standard control features include a material protection management system that can automatically reduce process air temperatures when return-air temperature exceeds set-point and real-time energy consumption monitoring for tracking power use and calculating power need for a given quantity of parts.

Conair says the MicroWheel dryers are usually priced lower than compressed-air dryers and are comparable in price to twin-tower dryers.

The Conair dryers use 220-volt single-phase power and operate without a need for compressed air.