Tie every moulded housing, luer connector and tube to its resin lot, mould and cavity.

Medical plastics firms rarely sell a finished device. They make the clear polycarbonate housing, the luer lock, the barrel or the length of catheter tube that a device company assembles. Their customer asks for the record behind each lot. The same part must come every time.

Resin grade and lot, dryer dew point, mould and cavity number, shot weight, cycle time and the cleanroom where the part was bagged all count. When a lot is queried, the answer lies in every one of them at once. One missing entry leaves the device company unconvinced.

A customer supplies drawings, a tool or a request to build one, and a resin specification. After tool approval, the planner books a press and a mould for each order. Operators dry the pellets in a desiccant hopper for the set hours and load the machine. Quality staff then run first articles and confirm gate vestige, critical dimensions, weight and appearance under the lamp. Only after that is the press released to run.

During the run, cavity checks and visual inspection catch flash, splay, black specks, short shots and sink marks. Parts drop into liners, are counted, then bagged and labelled with the lot in a classified room. Extruded tube is cut to length and coiled. Some parts move on to pad printing or ultrasonic welding in a second cell. Finished lots ship with a certificate of conformance naming resin and mould. Customer-owned moulds also need their shot count and maintenance noted.