Product category:
Industrial Drives/Controls
News Release from: Danfoss Motion Controls | Subject: AutomationDrive FC302
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 05 July 2006
Vector drives answer medical
manufacturing needs
Advances in AC drive technology have helped a Leeds company win a valuable order for a machine order for Korea and subsequently for Japan.
Advances in AC drive technology have helped a Leeds company win a valuable order for a machine order for Korea and subsequently for Japan Fibre Extrusion Technology is to manufacture two machines to manufacture a high tech suture material for the medical industry
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 4 Apr 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Synthetic absorbable PGA sutures biodegrade within the human body whereas previous synthetic sutures, based on monofilament nylon, were not dissolvable, making them unsuitable for internal stitching.
Following the BSE crisis, absorbable natural sutures or gut carried a small risk to the patient as BSE prions do not respond to established sterilisation methods, and threaten viral transmission.
PGA also offers tensile strength, pliability in use, knot strength and a smooth finish.
Further reading
Compact air-cooled drives developed
With advanced air-cooling techniques Danfoss has now expanded its VLT range to 1200kW at voltages from 380V right through to 690V.
HVAC drives cruise the world
The air handing units and chiller pumps on board the world's most luxurious cruise ship are equipped with a total of over 80 Danfoss VLT HVAC drives.
Critically, synthetic suture material must also have a consistent diameter (denier) and control of denier during manufacture is FET's speciality.
The manufacture of PGA is a melt spinning process and was originally developed for the manufacture of polypropylene, which, when woven, was used for high strength straps such as seatbelts, lifting straps, cordage etc.
Following polymerisation of the raw material, it is extruded through highly specialised heated dies.
The melt pumps must be very accurately speed controlled to ensure constant denier of the fibre and whereas, in the original evolution of the machines, synchronous or synchronous reluctance motors were driven by standard inverters, the more accurate vector control of modern drives has enabled standard 1.5kW induction motors fitted with encoder feedback, to be adopted.
Passing from the die, the fibre is air quenched to solidify and stabilise it before it passes to a series of four pairs of heated draw rolls, each pair of rolls being driven by a single inverter drive.
Here again high speed accuracy and stability is critical as the accuracy of draw-ratio between roll pairs imparts molecular orientation and governs the material denier.
There is a final relaxation to condition the yarn before it passes to a wind-up section where the fibre is 'laid on' to a bobbin in an accurately controlled pattern to ensure a stable pack.
According to Managing Director Richard Slack: "We selected the new Danfoss AutomationDrive FC302 for a number of reasons".
"In addition to the highly accurate vector control, there are a number of features on the FC302 that simplified their adoption and gave us confidence".
"Not least of these is the ability to connect the drives on an Ethernet network which enables us to interrogate the machine setup remotely".
"Danfoss is also well represented worldwide so service considerations for Korea and Japan were fully met".
"From the first evolution of these machines almost 20 years ago, we've always relied on our drive suppliers not only to supply first class products but also to provide a high level of consultancy during the development process".
"Danfoss again met that need in every regard".
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