In 2006, a long time major medical customer approached Tri-Tech with a cost and performance problem. They were facing an increase of almost 30% from another vendor on plastic components needed for an important product line. The medical customer’s engineering/buying team approached Tri-Tech to see if we could provide a more competitive solution. The part in question involves a filter. The vendor was purchasing filter stock in sleeve format, cutting it to length, inserting it into a mold and over-molding the custom detail the customer required. The result was a very expensive process which did not yield a very professional looking product.
Tri-Tech began development and testing to mold the filter array rather than purchasing filter stock. The challenge became filling .025″ flow channels with polypropylene to create the proper screen size. Many molding challenges involve consideration and adaptation of technologies from different fields and different intended uses. Tri-Tech constructed a small array in a square pattern to test the feasibility of “sintered” mold steel in meeting the proper flow and venting characteristics required for this filtration application.

Using the design and specialized mold steel proven through the prototype, a two cavity, eight cam production mold was designed and manufactured at our facility. In addition to an improved product both in function, and quality, we were also able to reduce the price of each unit below the pre-increase levels of our competitor.

For more information or details on how Tri-Tech Tool can develop a mold solution for you call Bill Weber now at 732-469-5433 or contact us online.