How Valmed is Increasing Medical Bag Production by using High Frequency Welding Technology
Mattia Mancarti, Plant Manager of Valmed, a leading company in medical device production, explains how Valmed’s collaboration with GEAF allowed them to increase production of their medical bags efficiently and safely during their plant expansion.
When did the collaboration with GEAF start?
When Valmed was founded, the mission was to become a leader in the production of nutrition bags (and not only). Within a few years, we reached this goal. To continue in our mission and meet increasing market requests, we needed a reliable partner to work with. Valmed needed to collaborate with an expert in technology for medical bag manufacturing – this is how the cooperation with GEAF started back in 2015. The combined expertise of Valmed and GEAF fueled a productive collaboration that enabled us to strengthen our position in the medical bag market.
Why did you choose GEAF as your partner?
We chose GEAF as our partner because they turn our ideas for a production process into a real, efficient production. The GEAF team value innovation, and they are constantly proposing new solutions that are aligned with Valmed’s mission and goal for constant growth. Above all, GEAF maintains the high-quality standards that are essential in the medical sector. These reasons convince us to re-confirm our cooperation with GEAF year-after-year.
What are the advantages of working with GEAF?
The main advantages of working with GEAF are their flexibility, innovation, and excellent way of listening to our needs. These are some of the best traits we look for in our partners. GEAF has always proved to be an attentive partner and responds to our needs by proposing customized solutions. In addition, Valmed values attention to quality and safety, and it is important to us that our partners share these values.
The collaboration with GEAF has allowed us to develop innovative projects to meet new and constantly changing market requirements. For example, one of our machines designed by GEAF can distribute radio-frequency energy to any side of a bag during production. The operator can choose which sides will be enabled, depending the specific product that is being manufactured. The entire process has been designed for maximum flexibility of parameters and uses just one high-frequency generator.
How many products are manufactured with GEAF machines per year?
Our goal is to continue to evolve and expand. Currently, at least 8 million medical bags per year are produced using GEAF machines. Based on current and future projects, that number will double.
What are Valmed’s requirements when choosing equipment to manufacture your products?
In a highly regulated environment such as the medical device sector, it is important to maintain very high and repeatable quality standards. It is essential that the final product is checked thoroughly, tested, and free of defects. Our entire production process is based on the principles of Industry 4.0, which allows our MES (Manufacturing Execution System) to have a constant supervision of production lines, active management of each stage during the process, and continuous communication with all units on our rapidly expanding production site.