Medical Injection Molding Manufacturing In Dallas

0
60

When a healthcare facility in Dallas needs any kind of device, they have to go to a specialized manufacturer.  Especially when a healthcare facility needs millions of parts, like syringes, they have to find a manufacturer who can do medical injection molding Dallas TX.

What is Injection Molding?

Injection molding is a manufacturing process for making hundreds of different plastic objects that people use in their everyday lives.  Plastic objects have been made by injection molding for nearly a hundred years.

The process of making cheap, mass-produced products really gained traction when there was a huge demand during World War II.  Some of the first products made were combs and buttons.

James Watson Hendry, an American inventor, invented the first screw injection machine in 1946.  This invention lets the manufacturer mix the materials before they are injected.  It also gives the manufacturer more control over how the plastic fills the mold.

The Mold

The first step the manufacturer has to perform is to make an actual mold of the desired product.  Sometimes the mold is made of metal.  Sometimes a super hard plastic is used to make the mold.

Think about the housing around an electric drill or the housing around a cell phone.  These products were manufactured using durable plastic injection molding.

Then the customer decides what materials they want to use.  Then the materials are mixed and dumped into the screw mechanism.  The screwing motion compresses and melts the plastic materials and forces them into the mold.

The mold is then cooled quickly and the finished product is ejected.  Quick, precise, and cheap.

Medical Injection Molding

In the case of medical injection molding in Dallas, TX, the same basic steps are followed.  But there are some changes to the process depending on what the final product will be.

Starting with the materials, if a manufacturer is going to make a medical device, in that case, medical-grade plastics have to be used.

Laboratory Equipment

The hospital lab is one place that uses hundreds of products made by using medical injection molding.  Most of the lab’s containers, and beakers, and test tubes are manufactured this way.  In addition, the housings around the lab equipment are also made using the medical injection molding process.

Surgery and Orthopedics

Medical injection molding is used to make very precise surgical blades and other tools used in surgery.  The method is also used to make handles for instruments.  Orthopedic doctors use tools made by the injection process.  The parts that make up a heart pacemaker are produced using the injection process.

Advantages

Using the injection molding process to produce medical parts has many advantages.  The healthcare facility can get the exact specifications that they need for their parts.  The medical devices can be made by the millions with no variation between the first and the last part produced.

A second advantage of using medical devices made by the plastic medical injection process is less weight.  When a surgeon is lifting a scalpel for hours during a long procedure, muscle fatigue can be a real problem. A lighter-weight blade can be a big advantage.  Also, patients who have to wear monitoring devices all day have less trouble carrying something that weighs a lot less.

A third advantage of the manufacturing process is that the intricate designs need for medical devices are easier to produce.  Designers can put in more details that will make it easier to use the device.  Also, the devices can be designed with easy-grip surfaces.

Sterilization

An important issue in all healthcare devices is that metal devices must be sterilized after use. If sterilization is not carried out properly, cross-contamination and infection can occur.  When medical devices are produced out of plastic materials, they are made cheaply enough that they can be discarded after use.

However, if a hospital requires devices that are designed to be reused and not discarded, sometimes manufacturers mix antimicrobial agents like silver ions into the plastic mixture.  This leaves the finished product with a microbe-resistant surface which makes the sterilization process even more effective.

A final thought on medical injection molding is that plastic devices don’t cause problems when patients need an MRI or an X-ray.

Comments are closed.