Challenge: To thrufeed grind ceramic pellets, which are used to manufacture radiopharmaceuticals (radiotracers) used in CT scans. The pellet count had to be tracked through the machine and the customer needed to measure a set frequency of parts that would be programmable. In addition to accounting for all the components, the machine had to separate the set number of parts processed for data collection.
Solution
A GT-610 thrufeed grinding system fitted with a vibratory bowl feeder introduces a stream of parts into the machine. The machine then utilizes a gripper, in a “pinch” action, to meter the parts into the machine. The machine then grinds the 0.100” diameter pellets to the required +/-0.0001” tolerance.
At the exit side of the machine, a sensor matches the parts count and redirects the part to be measured for offline gauging which feeds back diameter for automatic size compensation and logs the measured diameter for SPC analysis.
