Electron Beam Engineering, Inc. (EBE) announced that its design and welding expertise has helped ZELTIQ keep up with today's growing demand for its CoolSculpting device. "ZELTIQ selected Electron Beam Engineering as its welding vendor for the liquid-cooled heat exchanger of its CoolSculpting device because of our extensive experience in precision welding of medical devices," said Grant Trillwood, General Manager, EBE. "We quickly discovered that the original part had a complicated design, causing a time-consuming manufacturing process and making it difficult to produce in volume. We approached ZELTIQ with an idea of how to simplify their design, and after development of the new design and welding trials, we started producing the complete assembly."
The inside of the device has a maze of grooves through which coolant runs to evenly distribute the cold to the entire surface area. This allows the device to deliver the precisely controlled cooling needed to gently and effectively target the fat cells underneath the skin. Trillwood's team helped change the design of the inlet and outlet ports to bring down the material costs by about 15%. They also simplified the exchanger cover, which resulted in less scrap and reduced amount of rework. The design modifications recommended by EBE saved ZELTIQ about 20% in manufacturing costs and also streamlined the production process.
Production is performed with an EBE manufactured welder that is programmed to follow a complex welding profile to automatically control the weld parameters, producing not only structurally pressure-tight welds, but also neat, narrow welds that do not require post weld finishing. Once the parts are manufactured, EBE pressure tests them to make sure there are no leaks. There is also a final machining cut on one surface that ensures that it is perfectly flat within 1/1,000th of an inch with a 63 RMS finish. It is then laser-etched with a part number and chemically coated with a protective finish to prevent corrosion - a step that is also common in the aerospace industry.
"With any customer, our goal is to not only meet their welding needs, but to review their designs and make recommendations, enabling us to manufacture a superior product more quickly," said Trillwood. "In this case, we were able to cut manufacturing time by 20%, allowing us to meet ZELTIQ's production demands, while allowing the company to meet the increased demand for its FDA-approved CoolSculpting device."
EBE provides precision electron beam welding and laser beam welding services throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. EBE specializes in working with complex components for a variety of applications, including medical, sensor, aerospace and automotive.
For more information contact:
Electron Beam Engineering, Inc.
1425 South Allec Street
Anaheim, CA 92805
800-EB-WELDS / 714-491-5990
sales@ebeinc.com
www.ebeinc.com