The Medical Device and Manufacturing East Trade Show is being held this year in Philadelphia, PA on May 22-24^th at the Philadelphia Convention Center.   This show is the medical device industry’s trusted resource for education, vendor-supplier partnerships and new technology. 

If your company manufactures medical devices and you specifically, recommend, or purchase components or production equipment for them. You will find information and vendors for the following categories of medical devices:

The following research and information was published by Mountaintop Economics & Research Inc. and written by Bill Wood, Plastics Market Economist at Mountaintop Economics & Research Inc which was released on March 7, 2012.

Bill Wood writes:

“The recent uptrend in overall business levels for North American moldmakers was not only extended in February, it accelerated.  The Mold Business Index (MBI) for February is 56.6 which is a 2.7 point increase from the January value of 53.9 and a 3.3 point increase from the February 2011 value of 53.3.

Strong gains were reported in all categories of business activity.  The good news was tempered only by reports of longer Supplier Delivery Times and higher Material prices.  New orders registered another solid gain in February as did both Production and Employment levels.   For the third consecutive month, there was an increase reported in Mold Prices.  The future expectations remain quite optimistic.

The good news is that the economy is recovering and domestic production is on the rise. The bad news is that your injection molder may not be providing the service you deserve. It’s times like these that you need your production partner to be at the top of their game and supply you with top notch products on your timeline. It’s times like these you need to consider tool transfer. It’s times like these when you can count on Crescent Industries, Inc.

With over 65 years in the business, employee-owned Crescent Industries will contribute significantly to your success by building a long-term relationship with you and your company.

Injection Molding

Crescent’s injection molding facility is 50,000 square feet of precision hydraulic and electric computerized machinery. The attending staff, trained in Scientific Molding principles with certification from RJG & Global Standards for Plastic Certification, treats every order as if it were their own, because it is. Crescent’s team of trained and certified professionals can optimize any production process to consistently produce quality components.

When you make a big switch in manufacturing it should be a so smooth you only notice the increase in quality, attention to detail and timeliness. The professionals at Crescent Industries will go above and beyond to make you tool transfer painless.

The trend for pricing for commodity and engineering resins for the first quarter is they are rising.  According to an article in Plastics Technology April 2012, this was primarily driven by feedstock cost increases and in some cases resin supply. 

The following pricing and information was printed in Plastics Technology April 2012 article “Commodity & Engineering Resin Prices Climb Higher”, written by Lilli Manolis Sherman, Contributing Editor.

Polyethylene Prices

Polyethylene prices were projected to increase through April causing the January price hikes to molders.  Mike Burns, RTi’s VP of PE states “although, there has not been anything to support increased pricing in fact market indicators determine PE prices peaked in January.  These indicators include ethylene monomer contract and spot prices both trending downward in March, supplier inventories grew by 450 million pounds in January and February but global demand is flat.  Even so suppliers determination to keep prices high has dominated the market.”

The three reasons you should consider injection moldable metal alloys for your next metal components are as follows:

1. Used on an injection molding machine
2. Superior Function
3. Recyclable & Sustainable

 Used on an Injection Molding Machine

Xyloy™ injection moldable metal is not metal injection molding (MIM), powder injection molding, or metal filled plastic or thixomolding.   Xyloy is a non-ferrous alloy, pelletized for use with conventional feeding systems, tooling and injection molding machines to produce metal components in high volumes.   Since, this is produced like plastic injection molded parts it provides design flexibility plus the strength, stiffness and durability of metal components.   These can accommodate a wide range of coatings, conversions and finishes to meet aesthetic, chemical and/or corrosion-resistance requirements.

• Extremely high pressures allow for the perfect replication of even the finest of features
• A single mold can be reused millions of times
• It is a nearly fully automated process

Indeed, to that last point, in addition to injection molding, another trend that is sweeping the industries of manufacturing for medical and defense applications is the use of robotics. As a result of tremendous advances in artificial intelligence in recent years, and the development of both increasingly responsive and also increasingly self-aware controls, automated processes are now more prevalent than ever, with far fewer individuals required to take part in the process, thereby reducing the likelihood of human error. 

The increasingly rapid expansion of manufacturing in emerging markets overseas continues to be another trend that is altering the marketplace more so seemingly by the day. And while there are some perceived benefits to this expansion overseas, for instance, cost of manual labor, the movements towards automation tend to offset many of these perceived benefits. Quality control tends to be inferior in many of these manufacturing settings, and because of the highly sensitive time frames required for the turnaround of many of these deliverables, often the time that is required to ship these products from outside of the US makes it a lesser option. 

All told, while more and more companies by the day are springing up in the medical and defense manufacturing industries, factors of time and technology, including the aforementioned precision injection molding process as well as robotics, more than offset the benefits of international outsourcing in most instances. 

Precision. This is the most fundamentally critical element to the process of production. And in no industries is precision production machining more essential than in the medical/pharmaceutical, defense and aerospace industries.  Indeed, the precise and exact dimensions of the final components utilized in these applications can mean the difference between life and death both in the surgical suite, on the front lines and soaring in the air.

In terms of medical application, production machining involves the precision production of items utilized in a wide range of medical instruments, surgical implants, and devices used for purposes of orthotics. Many of these components are extremely small, and because of their vital nature, the final products must be delivered right the first time. There is no room for trial and error in these applications.

To add to the complexity, production machining for medical, defense and aerospace industries often includes the machining of very small parts. The ability to produce these tiny end products with absolute precision is critical.

NPE 2012 The International Plastics Showcase taking place April 1-5 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL is organized by the Society of Plastics Industry.  The NPE show has been going strong for 75 years and will be the world’s largest plastics conference, exposition and technology exchange. 

This year’s theme is “Breaking the Mold Reshape the Future of Plastics”.  The show will focus on future innovations in plastics for every end market.  The show is aimed at new plastic manufacturing technologies and will unveil process innovations to help component manufactures rise up to face the modern day challenges that lie ahead.   Highlights include:  wide variety of plastic making technologies, application specific developments for processors, designers and OEM’s, International Plastics Design Competition, plastics suppliers and more.

There are lots of injection molding companies, but few that take the time and effort to ensure a consistently superior finished product. It may be tempting to go with whatever molding solution is cheapest, but the cost of a molding product that doesn't have adequate quality measures in place can't be measured up front. Having to redo molds costs money and time within production, and customer loyalty after the products are released. Take a moment to evaluate some of the most effective tools and processes to ensure quality injection molded product.

PFMEA's

Product/Process Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (PFMEA) is a quality measure that can be used to measure and then impact important variables that affect product quality. By knowing which variables impact the finished products and in what ways, PFMEA's allow injection molding manufacturers to assign a level of risk to each potential point of failure, and thus prioritize on the most urgent items first.

Clean room medical manufacturing operations and management can be an industrious challenge. Countless tasks must be undertaken and numerous requirements must be met. Safe, sterile, pristine medical equipment and components are vital for certain medical devices to meet approval.   Clean room molding, assembly and packaging are aspects of facility operations that can be outsourced or contract manufactured

In order to gain the benefits of using contract manufacturing, it is best to focus on a few key items.

Cost Savings

Contract manufacturing delegates specific production to another company. For a medical device manufacturer, a clean room contractor could be an ideal outsourcing option. For instance, companies that specialize in clean room injection molding, assembly and packaging can actually produce the various components in a certified ISO clean room so that the medical device manufacturer can avoid the expenses of a clean room facility, equipment and trained personnel.    Contract manufacturer’s typically have relationships with vendors and a logistics supply chain for their industry providing quality materials and resources at a reduced rate.