Assembly Machines for Insulin Syringes.

The "NovoLet" insulin syringe is used by millions of diabetics throughout the world every day. It enables diabetics to easily and painlessly inject the life-giving dose of insulin, often up to several times daily. Novo was the first to introduce this type of syringe on the market and they have become one of the company's major successes.
At Novo Nordisk A/S (Medical Devices) in Værløse and Hillerød in the north of Zealand, JVL Step Motor Controllers are used in connection with the assembly of the insulin syringes. Step motors are very advantageous in this process as they are quicker and more precise than compressed air machinery and at the same time offer a relatively simple and economic system construction.

Each of the assembly machines contains approximately 15 JVL SMC15A Controllers. Each Controller has its own program which determines the acceleration, deceleration, velocities, displacements, etc for the individual motors. All Controllers are controlled by diverse start/stop signals via a central PLC which is the "brain" of the machine.

In addition, an error signal path is routed from each Controller to the PLC so that if a blockage occurs, the operator is quickly notified of what is wrong and which motor control/workstation is jammed. Each Controller can itself reset the motor.

All of the Controllers in each machine are automatically powered from a central power supply Type PSU40-12 (40V/1.2kW). This provides an extremely compact and effective solution compared with using controllers with individual power supplies.

The individual tasks performed by the assembly machine with the help of step motors are:

1) Rotation and location of units at 90 degree intervals.
2) Fixture of units.
3) Discrete movement of units in predefined increments.

 

 

One of the newer models of assembly machine includes JVL Controllers type SMC17A. This Controller offers the same features as SMC15A, but has a slightly different construction and, more important, is EMC tested, a factor on which Novo puts great emphasis for all new machines.
The new machines also use Zebotronics step motors, which are equipped with cable screw terminals so that the cable screens are terminated within the motor itself.

Several of these assembly machines are installed and in continuous operation. They each produce over 40,000 syringes daily. After several years of production, the machines have demonstrated great operational reliability and yet another series is planned to meet the increasing demand for NOVO´s unique insulin syringes.

 

 

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