Industrial Product Development
Spotlight
Company: Thermo Fisher Scientific
Industry: Processing and Measurement Equipment
HQ: Coon Rapids, MN USA
Webpage: www.thermofisher.com
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $24 billion and approximately 70,000 employees globally. Their mission is to enable customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. They help their customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity.
Product/Project Highlights
VersaWeigh™ Checkweigher
Client: Thermo Fisher Scientific
- Cleanroom environment ready
- For in-line weighing of packaged products
- Conveyor system maintains linear product handling path
- Designed for USDA 3A wash down environments using caustic cleaning agents
- Multiple section conveyor supports seamlessly transition between multiple configurations”
Situation:
Thermal Fisher Scientific wanted to moderize their check weigh systems productline to be more easily configured to customer's needs, update the user interface, improve belt tracking and increase throughput. This type of equipment is used for in-line weighing of packaged products such as cake mixes, cereals, pharmaceuticals and other packaged goods. Load cells supporting the center section are utilized to measure product weight as the product moves through. The machine needed to be designed for USDA 3A wash down environments using caustic cleaning agents and the electrical enclosure for the User Interface needed to meet NEMA 4X requirments.
VersaWeigh™ Checkweigher
Client: Thermo Fisher Scientific
Process:
Solid followed our proven Stage Gate process to design the product family for our Client. Involvement started with the review and refinement of the requirement summary that our Client had started. We formed a team of engineers and designers and assigned a Project Manger who wet with the key stakeholders and released the firt revision of the Product Requirments Document (MRD). Initial conceptualization focued on the conveyor sections to ensure accurate belt tracking while also making it easy to change belts. Proof of concept prototypes of the conveyor section were designed, built and tested to reduce development risk for the project. Solid then worked with our Client to refine a conceptual approach using a the three stepped platfom framework approach for small, medium and large to build out the product family size range. One version of the product was documented through the Detailed Design Phase for each of the three size groups. With the Client's approval of the design, Solid created full sets of engineering drawings, solicited quotations for prototype and production quantities and created Costed Bill of Materials for three different sizes of the product. In the Prototype and Test Phase Solid completed supplier procurement, inspection of components and assembly of the first units at Solid Design Solutions facility in Mounds View, MN.
Solution:
The VersaWeigh check weigher product was ready for production in three frame sizes supporting a range of conveyor widths and weight capacities. Frames support the integration of in-line metal detectors and eject mechanisms. And, it's a good looking machine!
