MRIM process used for Wills Watson+Associates project
When London-based product design company, Wills Watson+Associates, won a contract to design and supply a console body for new ultrasound equipment being developed by a French client, the company turned to Midas Pattern Company’s MRIM process - a decision that helped deliver a quality solution on time, on budget, with accuracy unrivalled by other moulding techniques.
The original version of the Orcheo Sonnoscanner was launched at RSNA in Chicago in 2005, at which time, with a limited budget and very tight timescale for tooling, the design company used a combination of metal fabrications and mineral acrylic composites to develop the product from sketch concept to pre-production prototype in less than five months. Two years later, Sonoscanner asked Wills Watson for the next development, Orcheo XQ, but this time around things were to be different.
‘If you look around at most other products in the medical and scientific sector there is a common ‘visual language’ that sends subconscious messages to suggest that the equipment is robust and ‘tooled’,’ explains Mr Wills. ‘Although well received, it was quite clear that the control deck of the first Orcheo version lacked the sophistication of a tooled product.’ After convincing Sonoscanner that a large console moulding was the way forward, Wills Watson dicovered Midas Pattern Company - ‘they were just like us: reliable, helpful, on-time and on-budget.’
Supplying Midas Pattern Company with initial CAD data, it was clear from an early stage that the Bedford-based company ‘offered far fewer limitations than traditional plastic moulding companies.’ For instance, Mr Wills says that the design team was able to include thicker wall thicknesses without the negative effects of shrinkage. ‘Shrinkage doesn’t happen with cold pour resins in the process that Midas use; the resulting console also feels solid and robust to the user, which is important for the perception of a quality product.
‘The accuracy of the MRIM process was also a pleasant surprise; the console body had to mate with a touch screen, tracker ball and PCBs that were being made by another supplier in another country. It was a huge relief when we discovered that the precision provided by Midas allowed the parts to mate perfectly. There was certainly no time to change anything if a problem had occurred.’
Wills Watson uses a CAD package called Shark on its MAC computers but Midas had no problem importing the solid models into its system. MRIM entails the manufacture of a composite resin mould tool directly from a CNC machined master model or pattern, ensuring that even the most complex forms can be produced accurately, quickly and above all very competitively. Square faces, undercuts, metal inserts, bushes and features that would normally need to be machined, can all be cast into PU mouldings produced using the MRIM process at Midas Pattern Company. Also, MRIM tooling can be modified relatively cheaply and easily in comparison with traditional injection mould tooling.
Midas Pattern Company manufactured an initial test piece using the MRIM process and subsequently produced a small batch that allowed Sonoscanner to exhibit the new, all-integrated Orcheo XQ at Medica 07 and RSNA in Chicago.
‘The Midas parts were also colour-matched to customer specification’ adds Mr Wills. ‘In fact, Midas can even apply EMC paint, an undercoat that shields electronic equipment from emitting interference - essential for most medical applications. Midas proved to be intelligent and helpful - at no point did they ever say “no”. They delivered on time and the parts demonstrated high levels of accuracy. We couldn’t ask for more.’
