Today’s drug delivery devices are elaborate. It does not matter if the device is a peripheral venous catheter, a syringe, a pen injector, an autoinjector or a wearable injector (pump), the most common element in each device – and arguably the most important – is the needle. In fact, although it begins as a blank stainless-steel rod, by the time a patient uses the injection device, the needle has undergone a dramatic transformation.
Typically, needles are mass produced and have been historically used at the end of a simple syringe. For most syringe applications, slight variations have not traditionally been of much concern. The latest medical devices, however, require significantly greater precision and complex manipulation of needles.
Due to the high demand, mechanical complexity and ever-decreasing size of these advanced medical devices, manufacturers have turned to automation to aid in their assembly. For the assembly of these devices, automation requires precision to help enable high-speed assembly but yet the system needs be flexible enough to deal with needles with a wide range of range of acceptable physical parameters. This makes processes that are required for assembly of a combination product such as singulation, feeding, bending, joining, testing and inspection even more of a challenge.
Mikron Automation is the industry leader in needle handling and complex needle manipulation for medical devices. Transforming an imprecise cannula into one with complex geometries with fine dimensional tolerances of up to ±200 microns has become a differentiating strength of Mikron. Its specialised knowledge and process understanding helps ensure its systems repeatably produce quality needle products for complex drug-delivery devices. This webinar will showcase some of the unique capabilities of Mikron that have helped complex medical devices meet their intended use and therapeutic purpose.
Key Learning Objectives
- Attendees will learn why there is an increasing need for combination products and needles
- Attendees will learn why needles, although common place, are very imprecise and will learn about the challenges this creates in devices that integrate needles
- New combination products require complex manipulation of needles during their automated assembly process
- Mikron Automation is vast experience in the handling and manipulation of needles.
