Anaheim, Calif. — Ultrasonic welding could save medical manufacturers on operating costs and improved energy efficiency through its use of short bursts of energy verses heat presses.
Romanshorn, Switzerland-based Rinco Ultrasonics showcased its next-generation ultrasonic welding machines and its new Electrical Motion servo-driven machine, available in 20 kHz and 35 kHz frequencies at MD&M West, held Feb. 4-6 in Anaheim.
Thermal processes, "where hot tools come together … [or] adhesives are the other alternative," Bill Aurand, sales manager at Rinco, told Plastics News at the show. "Then there's just no data collection."
Since the machine itself is "off 90 percent of the time, when it's on, it's just a blip of power," Aurand said. "The thermal process, that tool sitting there hot all day, it's drawing energy."
Since heated tools need to cool before they can be worked on, ultrasonic machines are also respectively more maintenance-friendly, he said.
Besides energy efficiency, the process can also reduce the number of films in landfills as it allows for a seal the size of a "pencil line," Aurand added. "You don't need a half inch seal."
Rinco implemented a redesigned Linux Ubuntu microprocessor operating system on its electrical motion welding system increasing its screen response time, a Jan. 21 release said. The operating system doesn't require a licensing agreement like Windows-based systems. The electrical motion welder also features new stack mounting feature for easy alignment for quick-change tools.
"We monitor everything, the energy, the power, the collapse, all these things that happen in that weld, and we can set limits around those things," Aurand said. "When you're welding a million parts, if one of them falls outside the norm," the machine's software flags it as a bad part."
For the medical market, that feature would allow a manufacturer to trace a device failure back to the data on the Rinco machine that made it, even years after production, he said. "Every adjustment, every error that ever occurs on this machine is stored permanently. It can't be deleted."
Rinco's next-generation standard series workhorse line of ultrasonic welders, available in 20kHz, 35kHz, and 70kHz frequencies, which also offers permanent audit trails, meet ISO 13485 certification and Class-6 clean room certifications for medical device manufacturing.
While Rinco's tooling is manufactured in Danbury, Conn., its machines are made in Switzerland.
"Everyone's a little nervous about tariffs. … We don't really know what that's going to do [to business,]" Aurand said. "I would imagine all the sonic providers are in the same boat. Some of them are German."
"If you look at some of the American providers, you'll see they have a round column. It's not quite as rigid as ours," he said. "And these are vibrating components, so we have to hold them in a way that doesn't shake the machine. Most of our competitors [have] this squishy mount, which when you're welding, might collapse, you lose some of the resolution … We're, in our opinion, smart about the way we hold it, so it doesn't shake the machine pieces."
The ultrasonic process is applicable to medical products that need to be hermetically sealed, such as anything meant for containing blood. It's also used for surgical tools and textiles, Aurand said. It's commonly used for packaging and can be used to seal medical products, including pharmaceuticals, that can't be exposed to heat.
Rinco is seeing more customers with needs for applications for bonding textiles to plastic parts in medical and automotive markets, like "little plastic parts that handle blood, or there's some sort of a sensor," he said, and automotive filters.
Rinco Ultrasonics is a member Crest Group, making it American owned. The company employs about 150 people globally at 15 wholly owned subsidiaries in Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Poland and Malaysia.