As mentioned in our previous article that you can find here, Relco has created a system that allows you to easily integrate induction sealing into any machine. Today, we will tell you a bit more about a project we worked at with one of the biggest biotechnology companies in the world that was looking for solution to the leaking found on their cartridges.

A solution to the leaking of cartridges

Our client Christopher and his team at Illumina were using conduction sealing and their cartridges were leaking due to the high forces and higher temperatures needed to make a conduction heat-seal.

“The main reason we changed our current processes from conductive heat stake seals to induction seals is because induction seals do not melt the surrounding plastics, causing a melted delamination ingress that failed our leak test.” Christopher Chu, Sr Staff Automation Design Engineer for Illumina

Relco’s solution:

+ With induction sealing, we can reduce the forces needed to make a good seal by up to a factor of x10 as the heat-transfer happens by electromagnetic induction and the contact is only needed to ensure good conformance between the foil and the cartridge/container.

+ We can also use a compliant silicone rubber sealing surface on the sealing head (which remains at ambient temperature) in order to guarantee perfect contact between the sealing foil and the cartridge/container during the sealing process – taking out any surface imperfections or inconsistency.

The leak test showed that the cartridges weren’t reliably sealed using conduction heat sealing and Relco’s induction sealing technology solved this problem.

We asked Christopher why he decided to go with Relco’s technology and he answered:

“Because Relco is willing to help me work on development and provide research solutions as a partner.”

Contact us with your sealing challenge!