Extended Infeed Autonomy

The extended infeed system includes trays with automatic mandrel loading. The operator only places the stents loosely in a tray and the rest is done automatically. The infeed has capacity for approx. 1000 2mm OD 50mm length stents.

The operator loads the trays of 40 stents and places the tray in the feeding system. The feeding system brings the tray in position and the system automatically loads the stents on the sapphire mandrels. After that, the robot takes the mandrel and runs it through the machine, finally placing the stent in a packaging module. Once the stent has been removed from the mandrel, the mandrel is ready for loading a new stent at the feeding system.

The feeding system is also capable of holding differen kind of stent sizes at the same time. The operator again loads the stents with different size and lets the system know, which kind of stents he loaded in that specific tray. The feeding system checks the size of the stent and the robot grabs the corresponding mandrels. From that point on, the same cycle takes place.