UK sub-contractor wins order for needle-free injection system

The system has been designed, developed and patented in North America, goes into production at the start of 2007and will be available to patients in the USA from early 2008. Volume is 2 million sets of parts per year with the ramp-up to 20 million. Dawson Shanahan won the contract against fierce competition from manufacturers around the world. “We have succeeded because we could demonstrate capability, capacity, and financial stability,” said David Dawson, managing director of of Dawson Shanahan. “The pre-selection investigation of our company was searching and rigorous, as only the drugs agencies can be. Our 30 years' experience of cold forming and machining parts, initially for the semi-conductor industry, and our impeccable management systems won the contract for us”. Initially, Dawson Shanahan was only quoting to manufacture the ram, a critically toleranced part which operates the injection firing mechanism. The ram is cold formed from wire and has two O-ring grooves and a notch machined, a much faster and more accurate means of production than multi-spindle turning could provide. The two grooves are precision ground to meet the tolerance and surface finish requirement.To cut the notch, Dawson Shanahan opted for creep feed grinding in order to achieve the angle required, within tolerance, and at a realistic production rate. Unable to meet the required cycle time of 4 seconds from any existing grinding machine, Dawson Shanahan designed its own grinder, which was built for it by the Leicester-based specialist machine tool manufacturer ETech. In demonstrating its engineering capabilities by devising the machines and systems to manufacture the ram, Dawson-Shanahan earned the opportunity to quote for manufacturing the chamber which contains the compressed nitrogen (used to fire the mechanism). The chamber is 55 mm in length with a 5 mm bore. A 0.5 mm hole has to be pierced into the chamber wall from inside to outside, and with the radius coined during the piercing operation. Dawson Shanahan won the contract for the chamber because it demonstrated the chamber could be better manufactured within tolerance by backward cold forming extrusion instead of forward extrusion, the system in use. It created the manufacturing process, designing and manufacturing its own tooling. “We are extremely proud to have won this contract, and especially so because we won it for the clever engineering we could demonstrate. We believe we have the contract because no other company could combine ingenuity with practical manufacturing, process management and price control,” concluded Mr Dawson.