News

The innovative, collaborative project AutomatIQ, led by Menicon, STT Products and Demcon Industrial Systems Groningen, has reached an important milestone. The project, supported by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), aims to develop a fully automated and future-proof production line for medical devices. After two years of development and innovation, the subsidy period has now ended and major steps have been taken in the development of the production line.

The first prototype of the line has undergone a number of major improvements and is now almost ready for the on-site testing phase. Thanks to the principles of Smart Manufacturing, this new production line offers possibilities to speed up production processes, to produce without defects and to carry out predictive maintenance, with a greater capacity than current production methods.

This project not only has economic benefits for Menicon, but also promises technological progress for Demcon and STT Products. The knowledge gained contributes to the innovative capacity of the Northern Netherlands region and further optimisation of production processes in various industries. Although the developments took longer than expected, expectations are high for the ultimate impact of this line.

The project will continue in the same manner as during the ERDF period. For the handling systems within the production line, among other things, work will be carried out over the next two and a half years under the SMARTHANDLE subsidy project.