ANAHEIM, CALIF. — The newly acquired Filtertek Inc. plastics unit of Esco Electronics Corp. molds a one-piece needleless system that it developed with SoloPak Pharmaceuticals Inc.
``The system provides access to any standard IV delivery system,'' said Jerry Newbrough, SoloPak engineering director in Elk Grove Village, Ill. He spoke in an interview at Medical Device & Manufacturing West in Anaheim.
Filtertek and SoloPak agreed in April 1995 on the development, which overcame the difficulty of maintaining two mechanical seals for as many as 200 uses. The Maxcess needleless system functions with Luer locks and slip Luers, costs about $1.50-$2.50 per unit and entered the market in January.
Filtertek injection molds the outside body of Eastman Chemical Co.'s Eastar copolyester at its Hebron, Ill., plant. A seal of Advanced Elastomer Systems L.P.'s Santoprene is molded over the polypropylene pin. The spring is stainless steel.
Medical devices accounted for about one-third of SoloPak's 1996 sales of about $60 million. SoloPak is privately owned and based in Boca Raton, Fla.
Esco completed its purchase of the plastics group of Schawk Inc. on Feb. 7. Esco of St. Louis and Schawk of Des Plaines, Ill., agreed Dec. 18 to the deal involving the Hebron-based plastics group, which employs 1,025 and recorded 1995 sales of $75 million. Operations continue at the group's four Filtertek and two Tek Packaging Group sites.