Industry News
B. Braun Expansion Highlights Commitment to Contract Manufacturing
2009 is turning into the year of expansion at B. Braun. The company’s OEM Division experienced its largest domestic expansion in nearly 25 years, adding 71,000 square feet of manufacturing space to its Allentown, Pa., operation, and a 16,500 square-foot cleanroom for injection molding. Executives said the additional space will help the company meet growing demand for contract manufacturing services.
“We’re seeing continued demand for contract manufacturing services, especially on finished assemblies and customized and specialty products,” said Tom Black, vice president of sales and marketing for B. Braun’s OEM Division.
The expansion of B. Braun’s facilities in Allentown (a mere six miles from its corporate headquarters in Bethlehem) encompassed two areas that executives said are key to the operation of the OEM Division.
The 71,000-square-foot Specialty Products Manufacturing area was designed to accommodate low-volume, manual and semi-automated device assembly and production. Opened April 30, the area is optimized for flexibility—the production lines and work cells can easily be interchanged for different production, company executives noted. About 32,000 square feet of the space is an ISO class 8 cleanroom for production. The packaging area features various options, including soft blister, pouch and tray.
The company’s new plastic injection molding area, which opened in January, houses 30 presses ranging from 55 tons to 330 tons, and contains enough additional space for future expansion. The facility’s class 8 cleanroom configuration reduces airborne particulates that can compromise the quality of injection molded parts, executives said. In addition, the facility’s high ceilings allow employees to use larger tools and incorporate robotic automation to the process for added efficiency. A central overhead resin-feeding system helps to further minimize particulates and improves the quality of the drying process.
Both new areas integrated B. Braun’s “Lean” approach to manufacturing.
B. Braun’s growth, however, was not limited to its domestic facilities this year. The company has opened four new kidney dialysis units in England and Wales, bringing the total number of such units to 11. The new units were set up in Cardiff, Taunton, Yeovil and Frome.
The firm also plans to expand its presence in Malaysia. The Penang State Government helped B. Braun obtain a 9,000- square-meter parcel of land that will be used to build a manufacturing facility there. Executives said the facility may feature such “green” initiatives as covered walkways, natural air ventilation and a multi-story car park. The new facility is expected to give B. Braun an additional manufacturing capacity of about 15 percent annually for the next 10 years.
AdvanSource Biomaterials Forms Development Agreement AdvanSource Biomaterials Corporation has agreed to develop a special solution-based polymer for an international medical device firm.
The agreement drafted by AdvanSource and the unnamed international firm calls for the development of a polymer that can be used across various product lines during the next three to five years. AdvanSource is designing the material to meet the specific characteristics needed to optimize the performance of its partner’s medical device. Few details about the agreement were available; a news release about the pact said the final contract would include an annual usage fee per end product incorporation and commercialization.
“We believe this new development relationship is important in validating our business model, the key driver being our ability to leverage our biomaterials technology and capabilities in partnership with developers and manufacturers of medical devices,” said Michael F. Adams, AdvanSource president and CEO.
Besides validating its business model, the agreement will help AdvanSource further develop its vertical integration strategy, claimed Khristine Carroll, vice president of sales and marketing. “This is a significant step in our vertical integration strategy, which includes our commitment to developing solution-based polymers designed to meet the specific requirements of our customers,” she noted. “We are very enthusiastic about the response we have received from the device industry and by the extension of partnership that an agreement such as this represents.”
Based in Wilmington, Mass., AdvanSource manufactures advanced polymer materials used in medical devices.
Infrastructure Investments Help Vesta Expand Service Offerings
Vesta Inc. is investing in its infrastructure to ensure future growth.
The contract manufacturer is expanding its manufacturing plant at its Franklin, Wis., headquarters and consolidating the operations of its facility in Portage, a city in the central portion of the state that is 87 miles away from Vesta’s hometown. The company plans to consolidate the operations of the Portage facility into the newly expanded Franklin plant by the end of the year.
The expansion doubles the company’s manufacturing space and will enable the firm to roll out Vesta Innovations, a new service offering designed to support early stage product development for medical device OEMs. According to the company’s Web site, the Vesta Innovations division works as an extension of its customers’ development teams to refine their design for manufacturability. The division promises to expedite the tooling and prototyping process to put proposed parts in production as quickly as possible.
Besides the investment in its silicone-based manufacturing operations, Vesta is consolidating its thermoplastic extrusion facilities in Placentia and Temecula, Calif., into a new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Corona, Calif. That new facility will house the production operations for Extrumed, a precision tubing solutions provider that was purchased by Vesta in March. The new manufacturing plant will enable Vesta to expand Extrumed’s secondary service offerings while still allowing the division to focus on thermoplastic extrusions.
Vesta executives said the new thermoplastic manufacturing plant is slated to be finished early next year. The company will continue to operate its Extrumed facility in Livermore, Calif.
TDC Medical Expands East and West Coast Facilities
TDC Medical is experiencing some growing pains. The company has expanded its facilities on both U.S. coasts in an effort to increase its capacity and improve its work flow, executives said.
TDC Medical’s 15,000-square-foot facility in Sunnyvale, Calif., includes a 3,200 square-foot clean room, several engineering labs, and more office space. The facility expansion in Marlborough, Mass., nearly doubled the firm’s manufacturing space to 24,000 square feet.
Executives claimed the expansion projects were driven by increased demand for TDC’s services. The company, a pilot manufacturing arm of The MedTech Group Inc., designs, develops and manufactures reusable therapeutic medical devices. It employs 75 people in California, Colorado and Massachusetts.
TDC Medical was acquired in February by The MedTech Group, a contract manufacturer with facilities in South Plainfield and Middlesex, N.J.; West Haven, Conn.; Vega Baja, Puerto Rico; and Heredia, Costa Rica.
Tegra Medical Adds New Services for Customers
Better customer service and improved product quality has prompted Tegra Medical to add injecting and insert molding services to the available capabilities at its Dartmouth, Mass., facility.
The company recently purchased a 44-ton Arburg ALLROUNDER molding machine to accommodate the new services. The machine is best suited for use on minimally invasive parts and assemblies as well as specialty needles. According to a news release from Tegra, the molding machine can operate in either a horizontal or vertical fashion to produce injection molded components, insert mold on to a metal component or assembly; and overmold on plastic components. Company executives called the new service offering a “natural extension” of its existing services.
“We’re excited about being able to offer our customers this capability as it will simplify their supply chain,” said Tom Burns, Tegra’s vice president of business development. “It is a natural extension of our current capabilities and something we’ve had repeated requests for.”
The timing couldn’t be better, either. Tegra’s Dartmouth facility already contains grinding, finishing, and automated assembly equipment.
“Since purchasing American Medical Instruments and the 57,000-square-foot Dartmouth facility in late 2007, we’ve made a number of improvements to the site,” said Bob Roche, Tegra’s president and chief operating officer. “The timing is perfect to add this capability to the precision grinding and finishing operations and automated assembly already in place. In addition to the new equipment, we have added additional process and quality engineering resources to support the business.”
Based in Franklin, Mass., Tegra Medical manufactures wire and tubular components and assemblies for medical device firms.
Norman Noble Unveils New Laser Machining Technology
Norman Noble Inc. has a new service to offer its customers. The Highland Heights, Ohio-based contract manufacturing firm has developed an athermal laser machining process that creates highly precise features in any material without producing any heat affected zone (HAZ).
The lack of HAZ in the machining process can help companies reduce and eliminate deburring and post processing steps, and increase product quality and yield. The process, called Noble UltraLight, uses an ultrashort pulse laser that cuts into any material, including bioabsorbable polymers and shape memory metals.
“We are very excited about integrating the UltraLight laser into our operations and applying the advantages that this technology offers to meet our medical and aerospace customers’ production specifications,” said Dan Stefano, Norman Noble’s vice president of manufacturing.
The ultrafast laser process enables manufacturers to machine features in materials used to make vascular stents, drug delivery systems, catheter devices, valves and needles, according to the company.
“UltraLight is a giant leap forward for manufacturing technology within the United States,” noted Chris Noble, the company’s vice president. “A laser system capable of cutting the tightest, most intricate geometry through virtually any material without generating any thermal damage to the material was once unimaginable to most design engineers.”
“These engineers had to design their products around removal of this thermal damage or use less than optimal materials,” Noble continued. “Today, Norman Noble has brought athermal out of the laboratory and into the hands of our staff of laser technicians. We look forward to demonstrating our new Noble UltraLight laser cutting system’s capabilities to our customers and shortening their time to market for implantable devices. Most importantly, we’re excited by the benefits these patients will realize worldwide.”
iPod Winners
The staff at Medical Product Outsourcing thanks and congratulates the winners of our iPod drawing: Peggy Ly, supply base manager at Abbott Diabetes Care; and Donald Wesner, operations manager at X-spine Systems Inc. Ly and Wesner participated in the magazine’s annual OEM outsourcing survey.
ISO CERTIFICATIONS
• Capsule, a French provider of medical device connectivity solutions, has received ISO 13485:2003 certification for its headquarters in Paris, France, and its U.S. facility in Andover, Mass. The certification covers the design, production and sales of data acquisition and processing systems in the medical industry, according to the firm.
• Janco Electronics Inc., a contract manufacturer and test facility, has received ISO 13485:2003 certification. The company is headquartered in Dover, N.H., and serves the medical, military, industrial, microwave communications and commercial markets.
• ISO 13485:2003 certification has been awarded to Logic, an industrial design and product development company based in Minneapolis, Minn. The certification for design covers the company’s product development facilities in Minneapolis and Boston, Mass. Four years ago, Logic received the same certification for its manufacturing group.
• ISO 13485:2003 certification has been awarded to MRPC, a provider of device components and assemblies based in Butler, Wis. Company officials said the certification will enable the firm to better serve its customers, fulfill a future need, and open up new markets in sophisticated areas such as implantables. “While the ISO 13485 certification is still in its infancy, we think that it will become a standard requirement of device manufacturers within three to five years,” said Michael Dalton, quality director at MRPC.
Biotech in Brief
The business model currently in existence for biotech is not sustainable, according to a recent report from Ernst & Young. The future of biotechnology, the report concludes, will be Darwinian, or a survival of the fittest, as companies work to shift to more workable business models…Biotechnology companies in New Hampshire captured $192 million in venture capital between 2002 and 2007, including $71.4 million in 2007, while the number of private sector jobs grew by 14.7 percent during that time, rising to 3,321 jobs, according to data from the Biotechnology Industry Organization…Biospace.com and Pennsylvania Bio have created a career center for bioscience firms and job candidates in the Keystone State. Powered by Biospace, the center gives companies access to online resources, helping them select better-qualified candidates for biotechnology jobs. In addition, the center allows candidates to search hundreds of positions and upload or distribute multiple versions of their résumés. Biospace also powers the career centers of biotechnology organizations in Northern and Southern California…Philly BioBreak, a social networking group for professionals who operate and invest in life sciences firms, has expanded into New Jersey. The three-year-old organization hosts quarterly happy hour events attended by life sciences executives and investors, who gather to socialize, source new business leads, and learn about other companies in the area. BioBreak executives hope to eventually expand nationwide…A report from the Delaware Valley Innovation Network (DVIN) has found that the life sciences industry will have 10,149 job openings by 2013, nearly 2,790 net new jobs and 7,359 replacement positions. The report also said life sciences-related jobs will increase 4.2 percent by 2013, with the largest number of positions popping up in science, production, engineering and technology. DVIN was created in 2005 to transform the way in which the Delaware Valley region (consisting of Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) develops its life sciences talent…BioFlorida, the Sunshine State’s trade group for the bioscience industry, has moved its headquarters to West Palm Beach. The 12-year-old organization is sharing office space with BioFlorida member Novak Druce & Quig, an intellectual property law firm with a focus on the life sciences industry…Agilent Technologies Inc. has agreed to acquire Palo Alto, Calif.-based Varian Inc. for $1.5 billion. Agilent executives said the deal would expand the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company’s product portfolio into atomic and molecular spectroscopy and strengthen its consumer product offerings. Varian is a supplier of scientific instruments and vacuum technologies for life science, environmental, energy, and applied research and other applications.