Richards Adds Straightening, Grinding Capacity
Contract manufacturer Richards Micro Tool Inc. has added some new capabilities to its service offerings. The Plymouth, Mass.-based firm now can tout its straightening and its additional grinding capacity to customers.
Richards recently completed an internal straightening cell and acquired a new auto-loading eight-axis CNC grinder. The machine, capable of grinding components up to 10.5 inches long, is equipped with optional steady rest and internal wheel dressing features.
Executives said the straightening cell enables Richards to ensure customers’ straightness specifications. The straightening process typically is performed to counteract distortions during heat treatment. “It is easy to underestimate the importance of this process but it definitely impacts an instrument’s efficacy,” noted Lee Clermont, medical compliance coordinator for Richards. “We typically want to hold straightness tighter than our customer’s specification and with this in-house now, we’ll ensure that it is.”
Richards added the latest capabilities to its offerings nearly a year after supplementing its services with EDM hole machining capabilities. The self-loading machine, added to the company’s automated lineup last February, can drill diameters ranging from .013 inches to .120 inches and to a maximum depth of 9.8 inches. The company also added additional capacity to its centerless grinding area at that time.
Richards production manager Bob Deforest said the firm added EDM hole machining capabilities and more grinding capacity to accommodate customer demand for instruments used in minimally invasive surgeries. “More of our customers are looking at minimally invasive surgery, so we wanted to bring this capability in-house to support them,” he said in a news release.
Richards is a contract manufacturer of medical and dental rotary cutting instruments such as drills, taps, burrs and reamers. Its line of industrial cutting tools ranges from .005 inches to .500 inches in diameter.
Elcam Medical Goes Abroadfor its Latest Acquisition
Elcam Medical Inc. is setting its sights on the hemodialysis industry.
The Hackensack, N.J.-based developer of vital sign monitoring devices and fluid management systems has acquired Lucomed S.p.A., a manufacturer and distributor of disposable medical products for the hemodialysis industry. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Elcam’s CEO said the deal would broaden the company’s product lines and expand its production facilities. Lucomed is based in Carpi, Italy, a town of about 67,000 people in the northern part of the country.
“This acquisition is a major step in our plans to achieve growth through the acquisition of synergistic companies,” Ehud Raivitz, Elcam’s CEO, said in a news released announcing the purchase. “The main goal behind this acquisition is to keep providing our customers added value by broadening Elcam’s product lines and expanding our production facilities outside of Israel. Elcam and Lucomed share a similar culture of high quality and impeccable service which I believe will greatly benefit both companies’ customers.”Lucomed’s top executive echoed Raivitz’s sentiments.
“We are very pleased to have Elcam Medical as our buyer and believe that our customers will greatly benefit from this acquisition, especially since Elcam holds the same values of quality and customer support as Lucomed,” Prof. Silvio Eruzzi said.
Elcam’s purchase of Lucomed is the second deal in 18 months for the company. In July 2009, Elcam purchased a majority interest in Injectech LLC, a Loveland, Colo.-based provider of luer connectors, barbed fittings, check valves and custom injected molded medical components. The 12-year-old privately held firm specializes in plastic product design, tool development, injection molding, and assembly services.
At the time, Raivitz said the investment in Injectech would expand Elcam’s customer base and help the firm establish a U.S. base of operations. “We see great synergy between the two companies and their products. Injectech also provides Elcam with a U.S.-based manufacturing operation,” he said.
Plexus Expands Chinese Presence with Land Deal
Plexus Corp. is expanding its manufacturing footprint in Asia. The Neenah, Wis.-based manufacturing services firm has entered into an agreement to buy land in China’s Xiamen Xiangyu free trade zone next to its current plant.
The company’s new 180,000-square-foot facility will be devoted in part to medical products and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2012. It also will focus on the industrial/commercial and wireline/networking markets.
Plexus executives said the investment in the new facility was driven by strong organic growth in the Asia Pacific region. Such growth transcended all regions in the first quarter of fiscal 2011, according to the company’s latest financial earnings. Revenue rose 2 percent in the quarter ended Jan. 1, 2011, to $566 million, a new quarterly record for the company. Plexus reported a 9.7 percent gross margin and a 4.9 percent operating margin, consistent with its expectations.
“This facility investment is the result of strong organic growth for Plexus in the Asia Pacific region and continues our strategy of investing in close proximity to current locations to leverage our strong operations teams,” said YJ Lim, regional president for Plexus Asia Pacific. “With the support of our local supply chain partners, our manufacturing capabilities offer a significant advantage for companies that are seeking mid-to-low volume, higher complexity product realization value stream solutions in China.”
Plexus executives paired the news of its land deal with the announcement that its current facility in the Xiamen free trade zone has been certified by China’s State Food and Drug Administration to manufacture finished Class I and Class II medical devices for customers that sell to Asian markets.
“The SFDA certification in our Xiamen facility will allow us to further enhance our medical service offerings to global customers seeking end-market fulfillment of medical products into China,” Lim noted. “We are excited about the opportunity this provides for us to expand our reach in the People’s Republic of China, a growing medical device market.”
Cogmedix EstablishesClass 4 Laser Facility
Over the last few years, Coghlin Companies Inc. has ventured outside its familiar wireless and semiconductor territories to make inroads in the medical device, defense and clean tech sectors. The firm’s latest venture down the path to the unknown has led it to the land of lasers.
Cogmedix, a Coghlin Companies subsidiary based in West Boylston, Mass., has registered a Class 4 laser facility compliant with the requirements of American National Standards Institute Z136 Guidelines and 105 CMR 121.000. The contract manufacturer is opening the facility so it can integrate lasers into a variety of medical products, including diagnostic and imaging systems, skin-treatment processes, ophthalmic assessment and surgical procedures, and surgical equipment such as that used to remove kidney stones.
The company has met the growing industry demand for lasers by establishing a compliant facility to mitigate the risk of laser-light exposure in the manufacturing process, Cogmedix executives said. To reinforce its commitment to safety and compliance, the company appointed a laser safety officer responsible for monitoring and overseeing the control of laser hazards.
“To do business with customers developing leading-edge laser technology, it is essential to provide a facility that is equipped to handle the technology safely,” said Matt Giza, Cogmedix general manager. “To ensure the Cogmedix facility complied with all applicable safety standards, we worked with independent third party radiation safety consultant International Radiation Safety Consulting Inc. IRSC performed a laser safety audit and gap analysis and helped us formalize a Laser Safety Program Manual to guide our day-to-day, laser-based medical product manufacturing.”
The establishment of the medical laser facility coincided with the company’s introduction of its new medical laser website (available at http://www.coghlincompanies.com/blog/2011/01/new-medical-laser-website-at-cogmedix/).
Coghlin Companies is a fourth-generation privately held capital equipment contract manufacturing and engineering services specialist with operations in both Worcester and West Boylston, Mass. The company is comprised of four wholly owned subsidiaries—Columbia Tech, Coghlin Precision, Cogmedix and DCI Engineering.
Paragon Medical OpensNew Bioskills Lab
Paragon Medical has opened its new Bioskills Lab at the firm’s headquarters in Pierceton, Ind. Company management and employees were joined by the Warsaw/Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce and other local officials at a ribbon cutting on January 19.
In December 2009, Paragon announced that it would accelerate the construction of this new lab through its Orthopaedic Instrument Global Design Center (OIGDC). The lab’s creation is in direct support of OrthoWorx, a Warsaw, Ind.-based industry, community and education initiative established to advance and support growth and innovation within the region’s globally significant orthopedics device sector.
The fully staffed facility is ready to schedule clients. Equipped with up to four cadaveric evaluation stations, the lab features ergonomic tables, laminar airflow, separate temperature zones, and a private conference room with a viewing window into the lab, the company said. Services include specimen procurement and preparation, instrument cleanup in a state-of-the-art instrument disinfection system, C-arm and arthroscopy tower rentals, audio-visual connectivity, and full catering capabilities.
According to Van Flamion, director of both the Bioskills Lab and Paragon’s OIGDC, the lab was designed and constructed for the sole purpose of providing Paragon’s customers a “convenient, cost effective, full-service facility where orthopedic and other medical device companies can perform cadaveric studies on their products and/or train their surgeons or field representatives on surgical techniques pertaining to their products.”
Flamion also noted that a soft launch phase was conducted with a limited and controlled number of labs during the fourth quarter of 2010. The Bioskills Lab exercised its logistics as a full-service facility while gathering critical customer feedback to ensure optimization before officially opening its doors.
Paragon Medical supplies custom and standard cases and trays, as well as surgical instrumentation, implantable components, and design services to the medical device industry.
Phillips Precision and Medicraft Become Marketing Partners
Phillips Precision Inc. and Medicraft Inc. are now on the same team. Operating for years as separate business entities but sharing many resources (machining equipment, workers and manufacturing technologies, among others), the two companies have decided to join forces to co-market their products.
Since the start of 2011, the Elmwood Park, N.J.-based firms have been marketing their products and services under the new Phillips Precision Medicraft brand. The alliance, according to executives, evolved from the pair’s close working relationship and was influenced by a growing trend among OEMs to consolidate and optimize their supply chains.
Emphasizing the synergy between the two companies will help customers more fully understand the advantages of working with the closely integrated firms, and convey a better image of the pair to the industry at large, executives said.
The companies’ combined production facilities encompass more than 60,000 square feet and contains equipment that can handle a broad range of materials. “We can now offer customers a single-source solution,” Michael Phillips, president of operations for Phillips Precision Medicraft Delivery Systems, noted in a news release announcing the partnership.
“From advanced orthopedic implants and instrumentation to sophisticated sterilization delivery systems, cases and trays, nothing is beyond our capabilities.”
Executives said customers and industry observers most likely will see ads and marketing materials in the near future that reflect the new “look and feel” of the Phillips Precision Medicraft brand.
Phillips Precision manufactures advanced orthopedic implants and instruments; Medicraft, an independently owned and operated subsidiary of Phillips Precision, provides implant/instrumentation delivery systems to the industry.
Cadence Unifies itsBrands Under One Name
Cadence Inc. and its divisions are branding themselves as one company. The Staunton, Va.-based metals manufacturing firm last month unified its divisions—Cadence Science, Incisiontech and Specialty Blades—for marketing purposes under the Cadence Inc. brand umbrella.
According to company officials, the unified Cadence name brings together three well-respected divisions to create a premier metals manufacturing company totally focused on medical technologies.
Cadence provides outsourced manufacturing solutions for surgical devices, scientific, and industrial applications requiring high-performance products.
“The unification of our brands represents another important step on our journey of growth,” said Peter Harris, Cadence president and CEO. “The Cadence brand conveys our ongoing commitment to precision and repeatability in everything we do for our customers, shareholders, and employees.”
The Cadence reputation as the market expert for improving product performance comes from an ongoing commitment to using innovative metals fabrication technologies, officials noted.