Tailor-made for customers

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BOSCH REXROTH & YPSOMED

When it comes to self-medication, Ypsomed, a leading developer and manufacturer of injection and infusion systems for self-medication, is seen as a pacesetter and trendsetter. The company repeatedly launches innovative products in the field of injection and infusion systems for self-medication with great customer benefits. One example is the new YpsoDose, a portable, tubeless patch injector for administering drugs with high, fixed injection volumes up to 10ml.

Like the new products from Ypsomed, the Rexroth transfer system TS 2Booster, driven by a linear motor, is also innovative and tailor-made. With flexibility and precision, it enables special processes in Ypsomed’s factory in Solothurn, Switzerland.

The factory of the future realized in the present

The fluid path, the most important part of the YpsoDose, is processed at 14 automatic stations, connected by the linear motor system TS 2Booster, e.g. during pre-treatment by plasma radiation, gluing processes with subsequent hardening of the glue, as well as optical inspection processes.

Individual parts with a 0.3mm diameter that are difficult to handle are precisely placed, oriented, and fixed in the serially added Rexroth manual workstation.

The use of manual workstations is due to the small quantities – compared to other products such as the insulin pens required by the millions – explains Christian Esser Wiesemann, product manager at Ypsomed: “We assume in the future more medicines will be administered at home. Home use has many advantages and makes life much easier for patients.”

The TS 2Booster also helps accommodate the processes in a space-saving manner, to approach them several times and even to save processes due to its function as a third axis. Ypsomed placed the highest demands on the precise positioning options of the transfer system. The linear motor-driven system,with the control and drive system, ensures the stopping position in the process is reached precisely with high repeat accuracy up to 0.015mm to fill the product with adhesive.

During gluing, parts of the fluid path not even 1mm in size are filled with glue, with several process nests being stopped on the same workpiece carrier at very short intervals. Due to the possibility of changing the direction of travel and the very short cycles, production processes can be implemented that enable a very low rejection rate.

In the vibration process, the Rexroth TS 2Booster transfer system demonstrated its advantages as a third axis, since the process is carried out directly on the transfer system.

“Due to special technical requirements for the product, we had to develop these special processes that wouldn’t have been possible with the classic transport systems,” says Beat Meister, engineer, industrialization & optimization.

Standardized, yet customized

Coordinated and easily combinable components and systems from Bosch Rexroth played an important role in planning and implementing the plant, which the high-tech company, ASIC Robotics AG from Burgdorf, a special machine construction and industrial robotics, assembly, testing, handling, and packaging company, planned and executed.

“We needed a system solution which could draw from a huge standard modular system and optimally combine the necessary special solutions. This is the only way we can guarantee the required high quality, implement new production methods, and be prepared for future stages of expansion,” says Roger Wälti, vice managing director/head of technology at ASIC Robotics, which was responsible for automating the assembly system.

Ypsomed and ASIC Robotics opted for the Siemens Simatic S7-1517TF and the Sinamics S120 drive system for the control solution. “The consistency of the products and the modular programming in the TIA portal make engineering significantly easier – especially for complex projects such as the transfer system for YpsoDose production,” Wälti says.

With the Rexroth innovation, the extremely adaptable TS 2Booster transfer system, the high customer requirements and their special manufacturing process requirements could be perfectly mapped. In addition, reliability due to the high system quality, functionality, and flexibility of the TS 2Booster, developed for the future and driven by a linear motor, were decisive in choosing the Rexroth modular transfer system.

About the author: Birgit Traa is a product manager for Bosch Rexroth.

Bosch Rexroth
https://www.boschrexroth.com/ts2plus