Brentwood Industries has installed a custom SencorpWhite thermoformer in its Reading, Pa., clean room that will allow it to produce parts up to 72 inches long inline.
“It is the new generation,” said Andrew Haus, medical product line manager at Brentwood.
He said that it replaces a machine that required more manual control and is “fully automated, much faster and reduces costs.”
According to SencorpWhite, the new Ultra system is the largest form and trim press that it has built. Its platens can produce parts up to 72 inches long by 34 inches wide with a 7 inch stroke.
The system has features to improve efficiency and throughput. It has a closed-loop seven-zone infrared sheet temperature sensing system to constantly monitor sheet temperature.
The system also has servo-driven presses. Its forming parameters are fully controlled through a built-in HMI with high-low warnings for quality control.
It also has a robotic pick-and-place system that allows the machine to automatically remove, stack and pack product, minimizing cycle time and maximizing throughput.
One application that the machine is being used for is in catheter packaging. Brentwood has shown its innovation in the field since the late 1970s when it built a machine to handle long trays.
Haus said the custom-made thermoformer took nearly a year of planning and that it will expand the company's medical packaging capabilities. It operates nine thermoformers in its ISO Class 7 clean room space which is set up for cell activity.
Brentwood was 26th in the 2016 Plastics News ranking of North American thermoformers with estimated thermoforming sales of $78 million. It also does injection molding. The company concentrates on medical device packaging, components and housings for imaging and diagnostic equipment.
SencorpWhite, based in Hyannis, Mass., is a Connell Limited Partnership portfolio company.
