Principal Investigators: Abuayyad, Mamoun, Anilchandra Attaluri
University: Pennsylvania State University
Industry Partners: Sartorius North America Inc.
The purpose of this project is to design and manufacture a prototype machine to be used in needless access sub-assemblies at Sartorius’ manufacturing process in New Oxford-Pennsylvania. As the demand for the product has increased, there is an increased risk of injury to human workers. A total of 800k sub-assemblies are forecasted for 2023 with an expected 20% increase in 2024. Lack of ergonomics is a safety concern for human workers. Inefficiency causes loss of time and has a potential risk of injury. Due to human error, defects occur in various parts of the assembly, and some during the gamma sterilization process. This leads to rework and losing more money and time. Two different subassemblies are being addressed for this process. Changeover needs to be simple enough for operators to perform, and time kept to a minimum. More importantly, equipment must be user friendly, or operators will avoid using it.