Medical technology specialist Wirthwein Medical has commissioned a new cleanroom

A look into the new cleanroom of Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG.

Under controlled production conditions, plastic components and assemblies for diagnostics, such as for blood analysis, are manufactured in the new cleanroom. The items are later used worldwide by customers.

Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG has expanded its production capacities with a new cleanroom covering 400 m². Here, highly precise plastic components are now manufactured on fully automated injection molding machines. The continuous investments in production expansion, digitization, and process improvements clearly demonstrate the company's commitment to its location and further strengthen the market positioning of the plastics processor in the Mühltal/Ober-Ramstadt region in Hesse.

In addition to the two new ISO 7 and ISO 8 cleanrooms, which were commissioned in 2019 and 2020, Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG now offers additional production areas for further customer orders with the cleanroom. Behind the 37-meter-long glass wall of the newly installed cleanroom, plastic components and systems for the diagnostics and pharmaceutical industries are already being produced on a total of 16 injection molding machines. With additional laminar flow modules, flexible cleanroom production of ISO classes 7 or 8 can also be reliably ensured in a controlled environment. "With all investments in production expansion, we also want to further develop customer orientation with maximum flexibility and speed, while considering sustainability," says Dr. Thomas Jakob, Managing Director of Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG.

Energy-efficient production technology

Through a new design of the cleanroom, air is introduced via side-mounted supply air ducts and centrally exhausted through ceiling-mounted exhausts with machine heat. The installed heat recovery system ensures high efficiency of the entire facility: the optimized sustainable fresh air technology uses the energy content of the exhaust air to temper the supply air. Harald Vlachos, Head of Building Management and Facility Technology, explains, "By implementing energy-efficient technology according to the Enterprise Resource Planning guideline 2018, we were able to significantly increase economic efficiency."

As an innovation-driven system partner and specialist in cleanroom production, Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG offers customized plastic solutions from a single source. Depending on the application of the plastic components at the customer’s site, different requirements are placed on the production environment. Most of the production takes place in cleanrooms according to ISO 14644-1 Class 7 and in controlled cleanrooms distributed across three manufacturing sites. The entire production environment is monitored continuously through digital monitoring systems to ensure quality. "With many years of experience in cleanroom manufacturing, the planning of a new production area is coordinated entirely in-house. This allows us to reach our goals faster and provides us with a competitive advantage," says Thorsten Hassenzahl, Technical Director. All production machines at Wirthwein Medical GmbH & Co. KG are connected to a modern machine data acquisition system and linked to the central SAP system.

Managing Director Dr. Thomas Jakob remains optimistic about the future, as the next expansion phase is already in planning and will commence by the end of 2021. By fall 2022, a new ISO Class 7 cleanroom for pharmaceutical applications is to be completed. Here, further fully automated production cells will manufacture plastic components and systems for pharmaceutical customers. The new cleanroom will be implemented at the existing production site "An der Papiermühle" in Mühltal / Nieder-Ramstadt.