A major aircraft engine manufacturer planned to present a new version of a helicopter turbine engine to the military in several weeks. Part of the plan was to have a full-scale model of the engine.
Typically the process of producing such a prototype would take up to one year. We had only a few weeks.
The product was designed from over 1000 CAD files, and was broken down into sub-assemblies. Vaupell Rapid Solutions is structured with a number of fairly independent team cells, so as each Stereolithography section was completed, a team was able to immediately finish the components, and commence assembly. The result was a full-scale model with an 80% reduction in standard lead time, at a much lower cost relative to the conventional approach.
Wheel Bearings
Customer was pursuing a project to reduce cost and improve performance in locomotive wheel bearings. They had several metal stamped components that presented an opportunity to be replaced by plastic.
To find the resin that met and exceeded customer requirements and meeting polymer product characteristics that were equivalent to the metal being replaced.
The material selection process went through a series of mechanical and functional tests working with the customer and our in-house testing facility. One of the biggest concerns was the integrity of the product. The product required maintenance of very tight tolerances on roundness and concentricity. Since these were circular thin wall rings, they possessed a very high opportunity to distort. After extensive finite element analysis and working with specialized peripheral suppliers, the number and geometry of gates were selected and multi-cavity tools were developed. The tool design was determined using a concept of conformal cooling and the tool was constructed selecting special high temperature conductive metals. Ultimately, we provided the customer with a product that met their needs, opening the door to several new economic polymer replacement opportunities.
Pipette Tips
Custom design and development of a critical application pipette to meet customer requirements. The pipette needed to meet standard CV values at a very low and limited insertion force.
Develop a functional seal bead on the ID of the pipette and to control the nominal dimensions in microns on multi-cavity volume molding.
The product was designed from initial concept using a CAD package which was later used to generate prototype tooling. Various dimensions and features were tested using Design of Experiment methodology. After achieving successful results, the challenge was to repeat it several times in multi-cavity tooling. This was done using our own state of the art tool room and metrology lab. The process was developed and validated utilizing Scientific Injection Molding technology with truly closed loop processes. A redundant inspection and automated assembly station was developed for cavity segregation, replenishment, and stacking in 384-well trays. Today the cell successfully runs 24x7 "lights out" with a very high confidence level in the quality of the project.
Resorbable Sutures
Vaupell was challenged to injection mold, assemble, sterilize, package and distribute a new design of Trumpet Sutures for plastic and cosmetic surgery. These sutures were designed to be used in mid-facelifts, brow lifts, breast lift, tendon repair and wound closure.
Existing Contour Threads have been shown to have poor barb adhesion compared to Trumpet Sutures. The Trumpet Suture maintains uniformity of adhesion and position on the thread. The resorbable cones have three times the tensile force of the barbed suture. Therefore, fewer sutures are required, with less time for the procedure and improved tissue growth, which extends the life of the suture.
Vaupell designed Custom 8-cavity tooling for the resorbable cones, and an assembly process for the suture. The parts were molded and assembled in a Class 8 Clean Room.
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