Standard Pledget Cutter

General Concept

The pledget cutter cuts the pledgets out of a standard PTFE felt. The machine can produce hard- or soft-pledgets, depending on the felt material. Two holes are automatically drilled into the pledgets (also called hole punching, even we do not use a punching process). Hole drilling can be turned off to manufacture pledgets without holes. The setup of the machine is fast and simple, as you can see in the videos below.

Cristal-Clear Cut

The extremely-sharp knife cuts pledgets without producing protruding fibres (). Cutting PTFE is chemically very aggressive and challenging, since PTFE makes normal hardened steel rusty (corrosion). High wear resistance is normally connected to low corrosion resistance and vice-versa. We have however been able to achieve this unique combination of properties by a powder-metallurgy-based cutting blade. Our blade even resists the teflon-cutting-stress, which produces little quantities of hydrofluoric acid with high corroding properties. This guarantees a clean cut, no rust on the product, and an high life expectancy. This is a core requirement for any implant production.

Step 1: Initalizing

The pledget cutting machine is simple to operate as shown in the following video-clips.

After turning on the machine, the operator presses the initalization-button which enables the machine to reference itself automatically ().

Step 2: Putting the felt

is a short movie that shows how to insert the felt into the machine. The felt was stappled onto a cardboard beforehand. The cardboard is approved for pharmaceutical use.

Step 3: Producing

The tray is large enough to collect all pledgets made out of a standard felt (6"x6"). shows cut pledgets falling into the tray. The pledgets rise out of the guidance in an inclined-tower shape manner. As soon as they reach a certain height, the tower collapses into the tray and the pledgets separate themselves. After finishing a batch the machine stops. The operator is then able to remove the tray and fill the pledgets into a zipper-bag.

Changing pledget size

For each pladget-shape, there is a cutting-unit needed. This unit consists of the cutting mechanism, the hole-drilling device and a hardcoded-memory for the software. The operator of the machine does not have to reprogramm any software, as the cutting-setup is stored within the exchangeable cutting unit. Changing the unit is shown in . The video lasts less than 3 minutes. That is the time to change manufacturing from one pledget size to another.