【Pressure Forming】How Medical Device Company Oertli Prototypes Medical Packaging in 24 Hours Using Pressure Forming
In recent years, hardware manufacturers have discovered that outsourcing and rigid prototyping processes can have both positive and negative consequences. As a result, many manufacturers have turned to desktop manufacturing to regain control over critical component designs that require maximum flexibility.
Malte Heuer is a development engineer and product manager at Oertli Instrumente AG. Headquartered in the Rhine Valley of St. Gallen, the company specializes in producing high-quality surgical and medical instruments for ophthalmic surgery. It exclusively develops and manufactures its products in the region to ensure Swiss quality, precision, and reliability.
Malte introduced the Mayku Multiplier and its pressure forming technology to the R&D and engineering departments. By adopting desktop pressure forming technology, Oertli has demonstrated how agile in-house prototyping can significantly improve efficiency and output quality.
( Related Article: 【Thermoforming Applications】Vacuum Forming V.S. Pressure Forming: What's the Difference? Find Out Now! )
CathaRhex 3 (Source: Oertli)
Oertli's R&D department boasts a wide range of manufacturing technologies, including resin 3D printing, FDM 3D printing, and other prototyping equipment. Leveraging these expanding technologies, the company designs, tests, and iterates at a faster pace every day, gaining a competitive edge.
Desktop 3D printing equipment in Oertli's R&D department (Source: Oertli)
From Frustration to Innovation
Despite Oertli's significant investments in sustainability, innovation, and equipment improvement, hardware development still faces some challenges. Until recently, medical device packaging was one such challenge.
Medical packaging prototype created using the Mayku Multiplier pressure forming machine (Source: Oertli)
Within Oertli, the usual packaging prototyping process was very slow, requiring outsourcing prototyping to the final thermoforming packaging supplier. Each design iteration took three weeks, and each packaging component required 2-6 design rounds.
The R&D team would design the packaging and use FDM 3D printing technology to produce limited visual prototypes. This prototype was non-functional because the undercuts in the packaging, used to secure components, were not flexible enough to reduce wall thickness, and no 3D printing technology could print a functional prototype.
Once approved by the product management team, the design would be sent to the packaging supplier, who would produce a prototype in approximately three weeks. The functional prototype would then be shipped back for testing by the customer, and feedback would be collected. This process would repeat until the perfect design was found.
Bringing Smart Methods to Manufacturing
This design iteration process was inefficient. So, when Malte was tasked with medical packaging prototyping, he put his SCRUM Master skills to use, seeking a technology that would allow for faster prototyping. Searching Google for desktop yet powerful thermoforming machines, he discovered the Multiplier, quickly recognized its potential within Oertli, and purchased it.
Mayku Multiplier in Oertli's R&D facility (Source: Oertli)
Malte was able to easily integrate the Multiplier into existing prototyping workflows, retaining already efficient key elements and optimizing problematic ones. He still used Solidworks to design packaging prototypes. However, instead of using 3D printed visual prototypes to submit to the product management team and outsource to packaging suppliers, he used 3D printed thermoforming molds (related tutorial: 【Pressure Forming】12 Thermoforming Design Principles Every Beginner Needs to Know ). He then used the Multiplier to create 3-10 high-fidelity prototypes and submitted them to the team and testers. All of this could be done within a day.
"If product management suggested a small change during a meeting, it used to take three weeks to implement and schedule an updated meeting. Now, changes can be made within a day, and a meeting can be scheduled for the next day, with everyone remembering the details of yesterday's meeting." - Malte Heuer - Development Engineer and Product Manager, Oertli Instrumente AG
Due to the requirements for high-fidelity prototypes, Malte decided to use a pressure forming machine like the Mayku Multiplier. Evaluating the design required tolerances of +-0.1 mm, which other technologies like vacuum forming could not achieve.
ROI of In-House Pressure Forming
Bringing high-fidelity prototyping in-house has allowed Oertli to remain innovative and agile. They can respond to engineering requirements and team feedback almost immediately, without the waste or inefficiencies that typical hardware manufacturers face during prototyping.
"The fast cycle times that started with software have now extended to the entire mechanical department." - Malte Heuer - Development Engineer and Product Manager, Oertli Instrumente AG
By using the Multiplier, Oertli reduced its design iteration cycle from three weeks to one day. They also cut prototyping costs by over 90%, while still producing high-fidelity prototypes. They can now prototype in-house, gaining full control over the entire process.
Integrating Multiplier into existing workflows became very simple, and Malte also introduced this technology to other teams. He realized that the high quality and fast production offered by the technology would have a positive impact on the entire company.
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