The employees of DePuy, a leading orthopedic manufacturer, know the importance of a good fit. When a product is to be implanted into a person’s body, there is no margin for error. The company has exacting standards for its production line, too. Recent improvements in product handling have allowed DePuy to increase efficiency and save manpower while successfully transporting expensive orthopedic implants in and out of the packaging area, which is inside a Class 10,000 cleanroom. The new system from Shuttleworth Inc., a manufacturer of in-process conveyor automation and material handling machinery, consists of four conveyors in this configuration: Two conveyors are side-by-side and stacked on top of two other side-by-side conveyors. One conveyor set acts as an infeed to the cleanroom and the other as a return. The top two conveyors carry totes containing documentation of the manufacturing history for each implant and a basket that holds the orthopedic device. These two conveyors are synchronized to keep the paperwork in order with the implants. As the two conveyors travel toward the cleanroom, the conveyor that holds the orthopedic device in a basket feeds into an Automatic Transfer Machine (ATM). The machine then performs the final cleaning and passivation (the process of removing surface metallic contamination, permitting optimum corrosion resistance on the implant). Once the implant has been cleaned it exits the ATM, it enters the cleanroom before it is finally married with the correct paperwork and packaged. It’s that process—the transfer of the implant and the paperwork from the outside to the inside of the cleanroom—that was the most challenging. You can’t interchange the airflow from the cleanroom and the non-clean environment. If air is exchanged, a loss of air pressure results, destroying the cleanroom pressure standards. The Shuttleworth solution insures non-contamination of the cleanroom using a pass-through “interlock” box that opens for product entry, but only when access doors to the cleanroom are closed, preventing air escape. When the access doors are closed, product and Conveyor system successfully moves orthopedic implants in and out of the cleanroom packing area using a customized pass-through box. Totes (at right) holding paperwork and baskets (at left) holding orthopedic implants travel side-by-side in sync toward the packing room. Only the conveyor carrying the implant baskets passes through the cleaning machine, though. Reprinted with permission. © FOOD & DRUG PACKAGING