DePuy, a Johnson and Johnson company, and a leading manufacturer of orthopedic devices, recently automated product handling feeding a class 10,000 cleanroom. With exacting standards for product quality, DePuy selected an integrated conveyor system from Shuttleworth, The new material handling system from Shuttleworth improves DePuy's product organization and inventory tracking while increasing production efficiency and optimizing labor. DePuy's product handling system from Shuttleworth includes four conveyors: two synchronized conveyors on an upper deck that feed product and correlating documentation to the cleanroom and two conveyors on a lower deck that return empty product baskets and documentation totes to the start of the line.
Additionally, Shuttleworth designed an interlock pass-through for the conveyor system to interface with the cleanroom.
'Shuttleworth was able to custom design an interlock so we would not lose air pressure in our cleanroom.
It wasn't an off-the-shelf item,' said Steve Harges, a senior manufacturing engineer at DePuy.
'I looked at many companies but the others weren't able to customize the system like Shuttleworth could.' Before arriving at the cleanroom, orthopedic implants resting in product baskets are conveyed to an Automatic transfer machine (ATM) that performs final cleaning of the devices.
Product is discharged from the ATM into the cleanroom.
Totes carrying documentation of each implant's manufacturing history are conveyed to the cleanroom on a separate conveyor.
In the cleanroom, the implant must be matched with the correct documentation and then packaged.
A belt conveyor carrying documentation cycles every ten minutes, moving precisely 18 inches per cycle, to keep pace with the product moving through the ATM.
Synchronized with a programmable logic controller, the system Shuttleworth integrated helps assure DePuy that product and paperwork correctly correspond and meet their production standards for quality.
'Our main objective in automating our product handling was to reduce the risk of human error by simultaneously moving product and the correct paperwork into the cleanroom automatically,' noted Harges.
'As the project developed, we recognized the additional benefits of automating the return of the empty totes and product baskets out of the cleanroom and back to the start of the line.
Labor has decreased.
Organization and efficiency have increased.' The majority of DePuy's product handling system features Shuttleworth's Slip-Torque accumulation conveyors.
The extremely clean and safe Slip-Torque conveyors are perfectly suited for cleanroom environments with sealed gear motors and drive shaft bearings that require no lubrication.
These Slip-Torque conveyors feed product and documentation to the cleanroom and discharge empty baskets and totes from the cleanroom while helping maintain the clean environment that protects the orthopedic implants.
Shuttleworth custom designed an interlocking pass-through box for the conveyor system that interfaces with DePuy's cleanroom.
An interlocked inner door and outer door maintains proper air pressure in the cleanroom.
When product arrives, the cleanroom operator opens the outer door.
Once product is removed and the outer door is closed, a sensor automatically triggers an inner door to open, allowing product and documentation to enter the cleanroom and empty product baskets and documentation totes to leave the cleanroom.
As an international conveyor company, Shuttleworth has 40 years of experience in the original design, planning and manufacturing of custom-engineered segmented roller systems and has over 15,000 systems installed worldwide.
Shuttleworth conveyor systems are used in a wide variety of applications in numerous industries, including: light manufacturing, assembly, packaging, food processing and packaging (including USDA applications), electronics (manufacturing, assembly and test), cleanroom (including semiconductor, medical products and pharmaceutical industries), printing and binding operations and many more.
Technical service and support are available in Europe, Asia and throughout the USA.