Hamilton
500 spring elements are produced using added manufacturing
The FlipTube carrier was developed for automatic opening and closing of the 1.5-mL FlipTubes. The Hamilton liquid handling robot opens and closes the FlipTubes fully automated and free of contamination with the help of the FlipTube tools. Four-finger spring elements are used (see Fig. 2) in order to keep them in an open position after opening the lid (see Fig. 1).
The requirements for the 500 annually produced spring elements were mainly of a mechanical nature: minimal abrasion and high stability, while maintaining high ultimate strain. prodartis AG’s laser sintering of spring elements in high-strength polyamide PA-HF meets these requirements. In addition, the material is resistant to disinfectants, which are often used in laboratories. It only took 3 business days to deliver the 500 spring elements - including adding black colour.
Because the spring element geometry is not overly complex, the laser sintering process was compared with a variant of the injection molding process. The result: A simple tool would only be more cost-effective with a series of at least 3,000 spring elements. Thus, the decision for laser sintering was a simple one. After all, besides the economic advantages and shorter delivery time, the spring element geometry can be adjusted at any time and without any costs resulting from tool changes and can be adjusted to meet these conditions and requirements.
