Medtec Europe is regarded as a leading platform for medical technology. Leading suppliers and customers from the sector will come together in Stuttgart between 26 and 28 February 2013 to gain an insight into current developments and also take a look into the future.
At the Medtec Europe 2013, Arburg and z-microsystems will produce so-called bottom layers for a lab-on-chip application as demonstration parts. Photo: z-microsystems.
Arburg will be on hand as exhibitor with a high-end application on Stand 1H04, in Hall 1. The electric Allrounder 370 A with a clamping force of 600 kN and size 70 injection unit will operate with a two-cavity mould from z-microsystems.
Lab-on-a-chip as future market Lab-on-a-chip technology belongs to the field of microfluidics. Here, micro-injection moulding and medical technology combine to provide the smallest of units for immediate and fast analysis of liquids in large-scale production. For moulding of the microstructures on the layers, the highest mould and machine precision is of crucial importance. For this reason, Arburg prefers to use electric or hybrid machine technology in this area, completely satisfying the demands for evenness of the parts and reproducibility of production. In the case of the polycarbonate (PC) bottom layer presented at the Medtec, the part weight is 3.264 g with a shot weight of 7.98 grams and a cycle time of 24 seconds.
Smaller devices for a major role As the dimensions of the lab-on-a-chip analysis units become smaller, it is generally predicted that microfluidics will play a major role in future medical technology. One of the possible areas of application in the medium term may be in the delivery of continuous analysis results, for example from patients with chronic illnesses.
Arburg GmbH + Co KG Postfach 1109 72286 Lossburg, Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 7446 33-0 Fax: +49 (0) 7446 33-3365 [email protected] www.arburg.com
