Glass Preforms - Smaller Than Small

When people first think of tablet or pill presses they think pharmaceuticals, supplements, vitamins and minerals or just medicines. But tablet making machines can be used for other purposes.

Since its formation in 2009 LFA Machines has worked with hundreds of types of products from a range of different industries. Some of the strangest projects have included: chemicals for cleaning pools, mettle dental implants, ceramic mosaic tiles and even the ball points of a ballpoint pens. But one of the hardest things we ever worked with was small glass preforms.

The company that we were working with had been making glass preforms for a long time. They made the base of light bulbs and small components for printed circuit boards. For this project, however, the company wanted to manufacture micro glass preforms. It was the same principle in theory as forming mm-sized tablets for the pharmaceutical industry, however the smaller perform was the most difficult task that we had come across.

The preforms were designed to connect the two ends of a fibre-optic cable together, so really about as small as you can get. There were two problems that we faced pressing such a small tablet. Firstly, the tolerances on the machine need to be extremely tight. When the item you are pressing is less than a 1mm across even the smallest change can be a big problem. The second problem to overcome was that, on a tablet press, all of the pressure is exerted through the punch set for every tablet that is made. This means that the tooling needs to be extremely tough, so that over time it does not bend, chip or break. In this example we were able to overcome these problems for a tiny perform with a modified Desk Top Press and custom made tooling sets.

It does not matter how unique your problem is we want to help. We enjoy the feeling that comes from being set a challenge, overcoming it and helping you in your business.

So if you have a tableting problem that you think that we can help with please do get in contact.

At LFA, we don't just sell machines -- we provide service