Used in the pharmaceutical industry, these vertical fingers, horizontal fingers and orientation blocks represent some of the primary components of a popular family of capsule-filling machines.
New Jersey Precision Technologies, Inc employs a combination of CNC milling and wire EDM techniques to machine the complex shapes required in the parts, which are made from 316 stainless steel and custom-engraved to our customer’s specifications.
Wire EDM offers several advantages over traditional machining for this job. First, the precision, accuracy and repeatability of wire EDM guarantees the moving parts will always fit together smoothly with less wear on the components.
Second, using wire EDM to cut the fingers eliminates surface imperfections and a rough finish, which would occur as a result of chatter in the milling process. Using EDM we are able to achieve a smooth 16 RMS finish and hold tolerances as tight at +/-0.0005″ on some features before doing any additional finishing work. When the machine is running, capsules continuously slide across the exposed surfaces of the parts, so a clean, smooth finish is critical.
Finally, using wire EDM reduces production costs because we are able to stack the parts four pieces high or more for the wire cutting process. Stacking allowing us to offer discounted pricing over our competition for larger quantities.
As an OEM parts manufacturer, NJPT works closely with its customers to learn how their products are used, how they work and how to optimize manufacturing processes in order to improve quality and efficiency. For example, we obtained exact measurements of the milled tracks in the encapsulation machines’ magazines that feed capsules into the orientation blocks that we manufacture in order to determine the most favorable dimensions and tolerances for our parts. By studying the design and operation of the capsule-filling machines we were able to see how our component parts function within the final assembly and improve the quality of our components.
NJPT stocks these components in a variety of sizes in order to meet our customers’ needs. In the event of a breakdown or equipment failure, our customers can rest assured we will ship replacement parts quickly and cost-effectively.