Medical processor and contract manufacturer McNeal Enterprises Inc. has moved to a larger factory in San Jose, Calif., driven by general growth for its plastic machined components. The firm's sales will double this year, prompting McNeal to relocate to a 62,000-square-foot plant that is triple the size of the two factories it occupied in Santa Clara, Calif., said DeAnna Godfrey, vice president of business operations.
The privately owned firm said it will have sales of $20 million this year, up from $10 million last year. The company moved in September.
McNeal is seeing more demand for assembly and for machining of acrylic, including manifolds and transducers for blood-analysis equipment, she said. It also thermoforms, and makes doors and windows by welding and bending polycarbonate, she said.
"Our customers want to send more of their work our way," Godfrey said. "They don't want to send their machining work and thermoforming work and assembly to separate shops."
The company added a quick-turnaround design department for engineers, she said, and it will have more space for assembly work.
McNeal also is seeing growth from customers that used metal machining shops for their plastic but were unhappy with the results, she said. McNeal only machines plastic.
Machining plastic and metal on the same equipment can result in metal particles getting embedded in plastic and then rusting, causing problems for medical components, Godfrey said.
McNeal employs about 105, and has 40 computer numerically controlled machining stations. Besides medical, it does contract manufacturing in the biotechnology, instrumentation, semiconductor and electronics industries.