Customized system solutions and assemblies under controlled conditions
Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG has expanded its production capacities by a new clean room with an area of 400 m². From now on, high-precision plastic components will be manufactured here on fully automated injection molding machines. The continuous investments in production expansions, digitalization and process improvements are a clear commitment to the location and also strengthen the market positioning of the plastics processor in Mühltal/Ober-Ramstadt, Hesse.
In addition to the two new ISO 7 and ISO 8 clean rooms, which were commissioned in 2019 and 2020, Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG now has additional production space available for further customer orders. Behind the 37-meter-long glass wall of the newly installed clean room, plastic components and systems for the diagnostics and pharmaceutical industries are already being produced on a total of 16 injection molding machines. With additional laminar flow modules, clean room production of ISO classes 7 or 8 can also be flexibly ensured in a controlled environment. „With all investments in production expansion, we want to continue to expand our customer orientation with maximum flexibility and speed under aspects of sustainability“, says Dr. Thomas Jakob, Managing Director of Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG.
Energy-efficient production technology
Thanks to a new design of the clean room, the air is brought in with displacement air hoses arranged at the sides and discharged centrally with the machine exhaust heat via central fume hoods on the ceiling. The installed heat recovery system ensures high efficiency of the entire system: The optimized sustainable clean air technology uses the energy content of the exhaust air to temper the supply air. Harald Vlachos, head of building management and building services, explains: "The use of energy-efficient technology in accordance with the ErP Guideline (Ecodesign Guideline) has made it possible to significantly increase cost-effectiveness“.
As an innovative system partner and expert in clean room production, Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG offers customized plastic solutions from a single source. Depending on the use of the plastic components at the customer's site, individually different high requirements are placed on the production environment. Currently, the plastics expert offers a production area of over 5,600 m². Most of the production is located in ISO 14644-1 Class 7 clean rooms and now newly in controlled clean rooms distributed over three manufacturing plants. The entire production environment is controlled and ensured by permanent digital monitoring. “Thanks to our many years of experience in clean room production, we plan a new production area completely in-house. This enables us to reach our goal more quickly and also gives us a competitive advantage," says Technical Manager Thorsten Hassenzahl. All production machines at Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG are connected to a modern machine data acquisition system and linked to the central SAP system.
Managing Director Dr. Thomas Jakob is also optimistic about the future, as the next expansion stage is already being planned and will be launched before the end of 2021. A new ISO Class 7 clean room for pharmaceutical applications is to be completed by fall 2022. Here, further fully automated production cells will manufacture plastic components and systems for pharmaceutical customers. The new clean room will be implemented at the existing production plant "An der Papiermühle" in Mühltal / Nieder-Ramstadt.