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Freudenberg Medical's in-house lean- manufacturing program undertakes a Kaizen event in its tool- storage area. all the time." For high-volume tools, Freudenberg Medical keeps an inventory of spare parts for wear components. The location of these spare components is mapped down to the exact drawer in the exact cabinet within the tool room. RAPID PARTS FROM RAPID CAVITIES In July 2016, Freudenberg Medical announced its Rapid Prototype WorkCell to speed product launches. At the heart of the program are custom 3D-printed cavity inserts that can be made in two to four days, depending on complexity. These printed cavity inserts are dropped into modular mold systems and run on dedicated machines by a dedicated team. There are six different types of mold bases into which the cavities, printed from ABS, can be installed. In addition to a basic base with no movements, Freudenberg Medical has one with slides running lengthwise; one with slides on all four sides; one with unscrewing for threaded parts; and one with a hot- runner valve-gate system. "If you want to actually assemble parts and test them for functionality, you cannot do that with printed parts," Neelam says, "but these are real molded parts, so you can do the functional testing." EXPECTATIONS OF 100% Freudenberg Medical's Baldwin Park facility was launched 20 years ago in 1997 as Anura Plastics Engineering Corp. (APEC), taking its name from one half of the founding partnership of Anura Welikala and Wolfgang Buehler. In the intervening years, including its 2008 acquisition by Freudenberg, it has remained dedicated to medical molding and the attention to detail it requires. "We are going to stay 100% medical in our vision and our strategy," Sokoloski says. "We recognize that customers are expecting 100% good parts, every single time. Even though there might be a sample plan in place, the expectation is 100% good parts." Complete Blown Film THE X -DIE & High Performance V -RING www.halpine.com T: (508) 655-1123 F: (508) 655-9337 ALPINE AMERICAN T H E B L O W N F I L M E X P E R T S @plastechmag 39 Plastics Technology On-Site Freudenberg Medical