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Natech Plastics Makes CapEx Investment to Bolster Services for Medical Device OEMs

A contract development and manufacturing company serving medical device OEMs, Natech Plastics has expanded capacity and capabilities with the addition of new injection molding and fill-and-seal machines in its cleanroom.

The company has installed two new Arburg injection molding machines at its headquarters in Ronkonkoma, NY, bringing the total to 16 presses. The facility houses an ISO Class 8 Cleanroom and provides engineering and design services along with secondary operations. The two injection molding machines will be used to manufacture medical and diagnostic products to support medical device and biotech startups.

The Arburg machines allow for deep insight and control over process variables, said Natech. The presses, conveyor, and robot are integrated, thus streamlining the manufacturing process.

“In a post-COVID world, demand is high for quality medical devices. We want to serve our customers as expeditiously as possible,” said Mike Botta, Engineering Manager.

Across the plastics industry, the average age of injection molding machines is 15 years, but Natech aims to keep its machines younger than the industry average. The new machines have a high degree of precision and reduce lead time, said the company.

Natech also has added four new custom-designed filling and sealing machines to its cleanroom space. They have a modular, interchangeable design that allows running a variety of processes — filling, capping, and heat sealing, for example — on a single machine. A built-in shuttle transfers filled product to the sealing station.

Natech notes that its engineers must conduct process validation for each filled and sealed product to quantify process repeatability and long-term stability. This involves testing different process variables, such as pressure and dwell time, and developing windows for the individual processes being run.

One application for these machines is the filling and and sealing of containers that house extraction buffers, which are used downstream for rapid COVID-19 antigen tests.

Natech offers end-to-end services for clients in the medical device and diagnostics markets, including design, engineering, injection molding, assembly, filling and sealing, and packaging. It is certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 13485, and is FDA registered.

Publication date: 29/11/2021

Plastics Today



      

This project has received funding from the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 837761.