Force Tester Ensures 8 Years of Quality at Owen Mumford
A tensile force tester has been used continuously on the production line for over 8 years at Owen Mumford, UK-based designer and manufacturer of blood glucose monitoring and control devices.
Horsham, UK (PRWEB) November 8, 2006 -- A tensile force tester has been used continuously on the production line for over 8 years at Owen Mumford, UK-based designer and manufacturer of blood glucose monitoring and control devices.
The system, supplied by Mecmesin Ltd, performs a retention test on lancet needles within the company's class 8 (manned) clean room production facility in Oxfordshire, UK.
The single-use lancet, designed for diabetes sufferers to obtain capillary blood samples, comprises a steel needle moulded into a plastic base with a twist-off cap covering the point.
To ensure the needle is not dislodged from its base when the cap is removed prior to use, stringent in-house production specifications dictate the minimum acceptable retention force of the needle within the plastic surround.
Owen Mumford use a Mecmesin AFG 500 force gauge mounted on an UltraTest stand (now superseded by the MultiTest 1) to assess the retention force of samples at 6-hourly intervals, in order to guarantee consistent manufacturing quality.
The plastic base of the lancet is placed beneath a custom-engineered mounting block, with the needle tip exposed vertically. A lever-operated pin vice is fitted to the tip and a tensile load applied to the needle at a rate of 200mm/min until it is dislodged from the plastic base.
John Potter, Systems Quality Engineer at Owen Mumford said, "We have been using Mecmesin equipment to perform retention tests on our range of lancet needles for over 8 years. We find the system easy to use for regular in-process checks, and generally reliable with prompt servicing from Mecmesin when required."
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