Plastics News staff reporter Steve Toloken wrote the following news briefs from Medical Design & Manufacturing East, held June 15-17 in New York.
Tessy Plastics' HQ expanding yet again
Injection molder Tessy Plastics Inc. is adding 40,000 square feet to its headquarters facility in Elbridge, N.Y., to expand manufacturing capacity.
Mark Halstead, director of business development, said the company recently finished a 60,000-square-foot expansion for warehousing and manufacturing, but needs more space. The growth is driven by the consumer product, medical and electronics markets, he said.
The company has added about 20 presses to Elbridge in the past year, giving it more than 150 at that location, he said.
Delphi makes entry into medical devices
Automotive giant Delphi Corp. is making a push into medical devices to diversify its business.
The Troy, Mich., company exhibited for the first time at a medical-device trade show, and is focusing on dialysis, infusion, mobility, respiratory-care and vital-signs monitoring equipment.
Its Delphi Medical Systems Corp. subsidiary does about $100 million in what it considers health-care-related molding, with about $80 million of that coming from parts for wheelchairs.
The company does not have any plants dedicated to medical or any investments in clean room operations, but it has two plants, in Alabama and Mexico, that Delphi officials said easily could be converted to meet Food and Drug Administration regulations for Class II device manufacturing.
Firm's latest resins improve sterilization
General Electric Advanced Materials introduced several new grades of resin that it said offer better sterilization and lipid resistance.
The company introduced a polycarbonate that is lipid-resistant for three or four days, and can retain its impact strength after multiple autoclave cycles. The grade, HPS7, shows no significant change in physical properties after gamma sterilization.
The Pittsfield, Mass.-based company also introduced a grade of Lexan, 4404, that can withstand up to 10 autoclave cycles at temperatures up to 273° F. And the firm unveiled a third grade, HPS4, that is gamma sterilizable.
Health-care market director Clare Frissora said the company is sampling other PC grades with better color retention under gamma sterilization and that can withstand more than 10 autoclave cycles.
