CADCAM & PRODUCTION IT MEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE MOMENT
And Seamus Lawlor says the foot-operated
opening system means staff don’t need to
touch the bin lid. “The lid itself, when closed,
is perfectly sealed, ensuring the potentially
contaminated waste is secure. It’s also
designed with a silent close feature so as not
to disturb patients. The front opening door
allows staff to easily change bags and we
use state-of-the-art glossy powder paint,
which will give a good, easy-to-clean nish,
so we expect the bins to last for between 10
and 15 years.
“This was more of a mission to support
the urgent Covid-19 requirements of the HSE,
rather than looking at the product as a longterm
business model, but private companies
are now coming to us wanting these bins for
places such as nursing homes and other care
centres. We’re getting interest from the UK,
mainland Europe and the United States.”
With Radan able to program both the
company’s Trumpf laser cutter and punch
press, the decision as to which parts are cut
on which machine rests largely on pro ling
criteria, based on the component’s curves.
“It’s dif cult to produce curves on the punch,
so those parts would be lasered,” Lawlor
advises.
Keltech is also developing a third product
to continue the long-term battle against
Coronavirus. “We’ve rapidly prototyped a
hand sanitising unit, which we believe is
unique because of its large tank. It’s
predominantly for high footfall retail areas,
and we’ve already had a number of orders for
it from major brands.”
BIG GEL TANK A WINNER
McNamara and his team have developed an
internal tank, nested and cut using Radan,
which can hold four litres of sanitising gel,
giving the unit one of the largest capacities
on the market, able to dispense around
6,000 shots before it needs to be re lled.
Concludes Lawlor: “This means low
maintenance for retailers, even in a highusage,
high footfall area and is a complete
game-changer from traditional units on the
market. Early customer feedback is extremely
strong and positive – they say they can now
buy sanitiser gel in bulk and the units are so
easy to re ll; busy supermarkets with high
footfall have only had one re ll after a
fortnight; and they say the units ‘look great
and are a real addition to their brand.’”
Elsewhere, a free evaluation licence of
Alphacam CADCAM software (www.is.gd/
mafoki) has helped a company that couldn’t
fully commission a machine it had installed,
due to Coronavirus, successfully step up to
produce PPE.
Codem Composites installed a previouslyowned
Blackman & White (www.is.gd/melulo)
CNC machine for cutting carbon- bre preimpregnated
with an epoxy resin for the motor
sport and space sectors, but saw Coronavirus
halt commissioning.
Explains managing director Kevin Doherty:
“It hadn’t been fully commissioned and we
had post-processing issues with the software
and interface. We didn’t want to invest
several thousand pounds in software
immediately, given the uncertainty brought
about by Coronavirus. But when we got the
call asking for help in cutting NHS scrubs,
we approached Alphacam, which is part of
the Hexagon group, to help us get the
machine up and running.
“We have a good working relationship with
Hexagon, as we’ve used one of their portable
CMM arms for collecting surface geometry
measurements of our products since 2018.
We’d already discussed switching our
CADCAM to products from Hexagon
Manufacturing Intelligence’s production
software portfolio when we need to review our
existing licences and are also in the early
stages of looking at investing in an ERP
system from them. Alphacam supported us
by giving a free evaluation licence for us to
cut the scrubs.”
This gave the rm complete exibility and
speed of production, by optimising nests.
“A full scrub comprises several components
and comes in a variety of sizes, ranging from
small to double XL. The tunic is made from a
front, back, sleeves, collar, V at the front and
a couple of pockets. Trousers are a left- and
right-leg, both front and back, two standard
pockets on the side and a patch pocket on the
back. To utilise the material properly and avoid
waste, we may nest a number of left legs, for
example, together with tunic fronts or collars
and sleeves.”
Running at a capacity of around 500 full
scrubs a week, the Blackman & White
machine cuts components for a group of
volunteers in Northamptonshire to put
together. “Previously, they’d been cutting them
by hand, so with us taking on the cutting they
can now spend more time sewing.”
Doherty says Alphacam accurately
interrogated the DXF le for each of the
The medical waste bins made by Keltech
www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets | July/August 2020 29
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/melulo)
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