Haifeng Automation Polyurethane Medical Tire Production Upgrade Project Case
Customer Background
As an established local manufacturer in Jiangxi with 12 years of experience in the medical tire industry, the cooperating enterprise covers an area of approximately 8,000 square meters, owns 3 traditional production lines and employs 85 staff. Its core products include operating table casters and medical AGV wheels, supplying 86 second-class and above hospitals and 15 medical equipment manufacturers across the country with an annual output of about 120,000 tires. With the continuous upgrading of the medical industry’s requirements for product precision, cleanliness and compliance, coupled with the growing urgency of overseas market expansion, the original production model has been difficult to adapt to the market development rhythm, falling into the predicament of order loss and profit compression.
Project Overview
Targeting the core production pain points of a certain medical tire manufacturer in Jiangxi (hereinafter referred to as the “cooperating enterprise”), Haifeng Automation has tailored a full-chain transformation solution integrating “equipment upgrade + process optimization + quality control improvement + certification empowerment”. Focusing on the production innovation of polyurethane medical tires such as medical casters and AGV wheels, the project has promoted the cooperating enterprise to achieve a leapfrog transformation from “manual inefficiency and unstable quality” to “automated high efficiency, compliance and high-end” in just 6 months through the introduction of intelligent linked production lines, optimization of medical-grade material formulas, establishment of a full-process quality inspection system and assistance in compliance certification, successfully opening up channels for high-end medical markets at home and abroad.
Core Customer Pain Points
01
Low Production Efficiency and Delayed Delivery
Adopting the traditional process of manual mixing + single-mold casting, each tire takes 8-12 minutes to produce, with a daily output of only about 320 tires; changing production for multi-specification orders requires mold modification and manual formula adjustment, taking as long as 3-5 days. The order delivery cycle generally exceeds 20 days, and 3 European orders were forced to be cancelled due to delays in 2022.
02
Unstable Quality and Lack of Compliance
Manual batching has large errors, resulting in tire hardness deviation of ±6A and a finished product qualification rate of only 82%, with annual rework losses exceeding 500,000 yuan; the production workshop is an ordinary factory building, and dust pollution causes the product surface to be easily contaminated with impurities. Moreover, it has poor resistance to 75% alcohol disinfection, and the surface layer falls off after repeated wiping, failing to meet the sterile requirements of hospitals; lacking international certifications such as FDA and CE, the expansion of overseas markets has been repeatedly hindered.
03
High Costs and Profit Pressure
During production, key process parameters of the casting machine such as rubber casting volume, casting speed, and casting pressure are not collected in real time, nor can they be managed and controlled in conjunction with parameters such as centrifuge speed and molding temperature. When parameters fluctuate, timely early warning and adjustment cannot be made. Moreover, there is a lack of a complete product data traceability system. Once quality problems such as substandard tire compactness and uneven wall thickness occur, it is difficult to accurately determine whether the problem lies in the casting link or the centrifugal link, resulting in low efficiency of quality rectification.
04
Frequent Complaints and Damaged Reputation
The rolling noise of the product reaches 62 decibels, interfering with the diagnosis and treatment environment of the operating room; without antistatic design, it is easy to absorb dust and interfere with medical precision instruments; some products show uneven wear after 3 months of use, with a customer complaint rate as high as 18%, leading to the termination of cooperation with 2 Grade A tertiary hospitals.
Haifeng's Solutions
01
Intelligent Production Line Upgrade for Doubled Efficiency
Replaced 3 traditional production lines and configured an intelligent mixing and foaming production line with 8 sets of linked molds, realizing full automation of batching, casting, temperature control and testing; built-in parameter library for multi-specifications of 12-24 inches, enabling one-click parameter call during production changeover, shortening the switching cycle to within 1.5 hours; controlled raw material ratio through high-precision metering pumps (accuracy ±0.1%), optimized foaming temperature (stable at 48℃) and curing process, with the fastest production of each tire in 1 minute.
02
Material and Process Optimization for Medical Scenarios
Selected medical-grade polyurethane raw materials and customized antistatic, disinfection-resistant and low-noise modified formulas, ensuring the tire surface resistance is stable at 10⁶–10⁹Ω, and resistant to repeated wiping with 75% alcohol, glutaraldehyde and other disinfectants without damage; optimized tire structure design, reducing rolling noise to 42 decibels and controlling hardness deviation within ±2A, perfectly matching the silent requirements of operating rooms and equipment load-bearing standards.
03
Full-Process Quality Control to Open Compliance Channels
Established a three-level quality inspection system of “raw materials – semi-finished products – finished products”; raw materials must provide third-party biocompatibility test reports before warehousing, semi-finished products pass 500,000 dynamic fatigue tests, and finished products undergo full inspection of key indicators such as outer diameter tolerance and radial runout; set up a professional certification team to assist in sorting out production records and improving test data, successfully obtaining FDA and CE international certifications within 3 months and gaining access to overseas markets.
04
Full-Cycle Operation and Maintenance Support for Stable Operation
Arranged 3 engineers to be stationed at the factory for 1 month to complete equipment installation, commissioning and staff training, covering practical skills such as equipment operation, parameter adjustment, daily maintenance and mold cleaning; established a 24-hour technical docking group to provide real-time fault response services, and conducted comprehensive on-site maintenance every 3 months to ensure the production line operates stably for over 6,000 hours per year.
Core Achievements of Project Implementation
Production Efficiency Takes a Big Leap
Daily output jumped from 320 tires to 1,200–1,500 tires—3.7 to 4.7 times the pre-upgrade volume—with annual output now exceeding 450,000 tires. Order lead time was cut from 20 days to 7 days, and overseas orders in the first half of 2023 surged 120% year-on-year. Notably, not a single order was canceled due to delays.
Quality and Certification Both Meet High Standards
The finished product qualification rate rose from 82% to 98.5%, while customer complaints dropped to just 0.8%. The enterprise successfully obtained international certifications including FDA and CE, and secured long-term cooperation deals with two global leaders in medical equipment. Overseas sales now account for 35% of total revenue, up from zero before the transformation.
Comprehensive Costs Drop Significantly
Raw material waste fell from 15% to 6%, translating to annual savings of 650,000 RMB in material costs. Labor cost per tire decreased from 12 RMB to 5 RMB, with 8 positions streamlined—cutting annual labor expenses by 400,000 RMB. Equipment downtime for maintenance was reduced to less than 1 hour per month, saving 80,000 RMB annually in maintenance costs. Overall comprehensive costs dropped by 28%.
Market Competitiveness Keeps Growing
Domestic partner hospitals increased from 86 to 210, and the enterprise was named a “Jiangxi Provincial High-Quality Supplier of Medical Tires”. It also smoothly took on high-end orders for medical robot tires, prompting the addition of one new production line to expand capacity. This marked a leapfrog development from “regional supply” to a “domestic and international dual-market layout”.
