With the rapid development of biomedicine, scientific research experiments and medical diagnostics, centrifuge tubes, as a common laboratory consumable, are in increasing demand and quality requirements. Traditional centrifugal tube production relies on manual operation, low efficiency, large errors, and is difficult to meet the needs of modern production. The emergence of automated centrifugal tube production line has successfully broken the traditional bottleneck, realizing the fully automated operation from raw material injection, assembly, testing, packaging to the output of finished products, which greatly improves the production efficiency and product quality.

　　I. Definition and composition of centrifugal tube automatic production line

　　1. What is centrifugal tube automatic production line?

　　Centrifugal tube automatic production line is a kind of intelligent equipment integrating injection molding, automatic assembly, testing and packaging. The production line can realize the automatic assembly and inspection of centrifugal tube shell, cap, sealing ring and label to ensure the uniformity of product specifications and stable quality.

　　2. Main components of the automated production line

　　Injection molding system: The centrifugal tube shells and caps are molded in one go with high-precision injection molding machines to ensure consistent size and high precision.

　　Automatic feeding and loading system: through the vibration plate, hopper and conveyor belt, the material is automatically supplied and the parts are accurately transported to the assembly station.

　　Automatic assembly system: Realize automatic assembly and capping of centrifuge tube shell and cap to ensure tight and consistent assembly.

　　Automatic inspection system: visual inspection and air tightness test are adopted to detect whether there are defects in the products (such as burrs, deformation or air leakage).

　　Automatic Packing System: Automatically pack the tested centrifugal tubes into trays or bags for sealing and labeling.

　　Control and monitoring system: adopting PLC controller and touch screen interface to realize visualized management and real-time monitoring of production data.

　　The workflow of centrifugal tube automatic production line

　　1. Raw material preparation and injection molding: adopt high-precision injection molding machine to mold centrifugal tube shell and cap. The injection molding process realizes constant temperature control and precision injection to ensure consistent size and high transparency of the centrifugal tube. After the injection molding is completed, the automatic pick-up robot will take out the centrifugal tube embryo parts and transfer them to the cooling area.

　　2. Automatic loading and assembly: The centrifugal tube shell and cap are accurately transported to the assembly station through the automatic loading machine. The automatic assembly machine automatically closes and tightens the shells and caps to ensure the sealing and consistency. Some high-end production lines also support automatic labeling with barcode or 2D code.

　　3. Automatic inspection and rejection: High-definition visual inspection system is used to inspect the appearance of centrifugal tubes and screen for defective products. Airtightness testing equipment detects whether the centrifugal tube has air leakage or bad sealing. Unqualified products are automatically rejected, and qualified products are transferred to the packing station.

　　4. Automatic packaging and output of finished products: Qualified centrifugal tubes are packed by automatic bagging or cartoning equipment. Automatic inkjet printer prints the production lot number and date on the package. Automatic stacking machine stacks the finished products according to the specified quantity, which is convenient for subsequent shipment and storage.

　　Advantages of centrifugal tube automatic production line

　　1. Improve production efficiency and capacity: the automated production line can realize 24-hour continuous operation, greatly improving production efficiency. Without manual intervention, the daily production capacity can reach hundreds of thousands of pcs or more, far more than the traditional manual production. Stable operation of equipment can reduce downtime and improve production continuity.

　　2. Ensure product quality and consistency: High-precision injection molding and testing equipment is used to ensure that the centrifugal tube size is consistent and the wall thickness is uniform. Automated assembly and capping ensures excellent sealing and leak-proof performance. The automatic inspection system can effectively eliminate defective products and ensure the qualified rate of products.

　　3. Reduce labor costs and errors: the fully automated production line does not require a large number of manual operations, only a small number of personnel to monitor the operation of the equipment. Avoiding the batch error and defective rate that may be caused by manual operation. Reduce labor costs and improve production efficiency.

　　4. Data traceability and intelligent monitoring: the production line can be integrated with MES system and ERP system to realize automatic data collection and traceability. Remote monitoring of equipment running status, convenient for production management and maintenance. Data visualization management helps quality traceability and improvement.

　　Centrifugal tube automated production line, as the core equipment in the field of medical devices and experimental consumables manufacturing, with its high efficiency, high precision and intelligence, realizes the integration of automatic molding, assembling, testing and packaging during the production process, which effectively improves the production efficiency and product quality. With the continuous promotion of intelligent manufacturing and industry 4.0, centrifugal tube automated production line will become the mainstream production method in the field of medical and laboratory consumables, helping enterprises to take advantage of the fierce competition in the market.