Fourteen Colors on a Catheter, with One Operator at the HMI
Fourteen colors used to mean fourteen sets of hands.
Application profile: a global medical-device OEM running high-volume disposable catheter production for an FDA-regulated market. The application demands fourteen discrete color marks on a continuous catheter substrate — depth-of-insertion indicators, polarity bands, brand marking, regulatory ID — every one of which is positionally critical and inspected. Annual output is measured in millions of units; the line operates multi-shift with strict cycle-time targets.
Decorating a fourteen-color catheter the conventional way means fourteen handling events. A traditional catheter-marking workflow stacks single-color or two-color pad-print stations end-to-end, with an operator at every station verifying registration, refreshing ink, swapping clichés, and handling parts between stations. Each handoff is a registration risk, a contamination risk, and a labor line item. The fourteenth color is the fourteenth chance to scrap the part.
Catheter substrate compounds the problem. The part is thin-wall, flexible, often soft-durometer polymer, and frequently treated for biocompatibility — meaning surface energy and adhesion are non-trivial. The decoration has to land in the right place, on the right axis, in the right color, with cure between every layer, on a substrate that flexes under contact. Doing that fourteen times in series, with fourteen sets of operator hands, is how labor cost and scrap rate escalate together.
KE13 14C — fourteen color stations on a single chassis, indexed mechanically, run from one HMI.
EPS engineered the KE13 14C as a single integrated pad-print platform with all fourteen color stations consolidated onto one print bridge. The catheter substrate is loaded once, indexes through the line on an automated conveyance, and receives every color in a programmed sequence — no inter-station handoffs, no operator intervention between colors. Registration is locked by the platform; ink is delivered through sealed cup stations that don’t require open-tray refresh; cure happens inline.
The deployed configuration uses fourteen pad-print stations on a single chassis, indexed mechanically rather than handled manually. The operator interface is a single touchscreen HMI: recipes are loaded, the line starts, and the technician’s job converts from per-station tending to exception handling and inspection. EPS positions the system as a labor-collapse play — the same fourteen-color decoration that traditionally required a chain of pad-print stations and matching operators now runs as a single station with a single attendant.
Substrate Presentation
Catheter substrate enters the line on an automated conveyance. The line is glass-enclosed for visibility and operator safety; no manual transfer happens between color stations. The substrate is loaded once and runs through all fourteen color indexes without a second handling event.
Multi-Station Print Bridge
The print bridge spans the substrate and carries all fourteen color stations across its length. The bridge descends in a programmed cycle, transferring each color through a silicone pad onto the substrate. Fourteen colors land in one programmed sequence, not fourteen separate setups.
Sealed Ink Cup Stations
Each color is delivered from a sealed ink cup riding over its cliché. Sealed cups eliminate the open-ink-tray refresh cycle and the per-station ink-replenishment task that conventional multi-station setups demand. Long production batches run between maintenance events.
Silicone Pad Transfer
A silicone pad lifts the inked image from the cliché and transfers it to the catheter in a fraction of a second. The pad is the wear-and-tear component; the platform is engineered for fast pad change without taking the line offline for color-by-color re-tuning.
Cycle-Speed Indexing
At production speed, the bridge cycles through all fourteen colors in seconds. The motion in the footage is the visual proof that this is not a single-color machine cycled fourteen times — it is fourteen color stations cycling as one.
Single-HMI Control
One technician monitors the line from a single touchscreen. Recipe selection, throughput targets, registration calibration, and station-by-station status all converge to one operator station. The line runs continuously once recipes are loaded — the operator's job converts from per-station tending to exception handling and inspection.
What the KE13 14C delivers in production.
Labor collapsed to one attendant
A conventional fourteen-color catheter line is staffed station-by-station; the KE13 14C runs with one technician at the HMI. The labor displacement is the primary cost-engineering claim.
One handling event, not fourteen
Parts loaded once and decorated through to color fourteen without inter-station transfer — registration risk and contamination exposure collapse to a single load event.
Cycle time set by the bridge, not by operator pacing
Throughput stops being a function of how fast fourteen people can move parts between stations. The platform sets the cadence.
Continuous run between pad changes
Sealed cup stations eliminate the open-ink refresh interruption common to legacy lines. The line stays in production between scheduled pad maintenance.
Total decoration cost engineered down
Capex + opex + scrap + cycle time + floor space + labor — all move in the right direction when fourteen stations consolidate onto one chassis.
Engineering a similar multi-color medical-decoration line?
Fourteen colors on a catheter used to mean fourteen sets of hands. The engineering question is not how fast a pad-print station can run — it is how many color stations can ride one chassis under one operator. Once that line is drawn, the labor case writes itself.