Electronic potting of medical equipment

In physiotherapy, injuries to muscles and tendons are treated with ultrasound. This form of therapy uses subsea ultrasound transducers. These are manufactured by a company that specialises in acoustic measurement products for medical and NDT industries.
During the production of the subsea ultrasound transducers, components have to be encapsulated with a two-component epoxy. This seals the components and protects them from environmental influences.

Requirements
For the application, the customer needed a machine that could meter, mix and pot an air free material into the transducers by shot application. The previous potting process took a long time. For ten transducers, the team needed about 40 minutes. The new machine will speed up this process. In addition, the A component (Resin) contains a pigment that easily separates during the metering and mixing process. There were also frequent problems with the hardener component, as it crystallises easily.

Solution
The new LiquidShot 3 metering and mixing system from METER MIX® speeds up this process significantly. From now on, more than 100 transducers can be potted in the same time. In addition, pigments in the material no longer separate. This is prevented by a built-in agitator and automatic recirculation. In future, the hardener component will be filled into a curing agent reservoir, incorporating a heating circuit to keep it at a controlled temperature to help prevent crystallisation. Both reservoirs have a vacuum facility. Finally, the two components can be reliably metered and mixed at any time. The result is a high-quality potting compound that optimally protects the component.