Its customers and potential customers know differently. But there are many others who don't know that more than 50 percent of the business of NyproMold Inc. is to customers other than Nypro Inc., which is a 50 percent owner in the business.
“Ten years ago, we had maybe one or two outside customers,” said Bill Muldoon, president of the Clinton, Mass., mold-making company. “It fluctuates, but now it's a little over 50 percent of the business.”
After minimal growth most of the past five years, Muldoon said sales have increased 35-40 percent over the past 18 months. That boost in business coincides with investments of $4 million that NyproMold has made in equipment, automation and engineering at its mold-making facilities in Clinton, Mass., and Gurnee, Ill., in that same timeframe.
“We have put on a second shift in engineering and added more automation and equipment,” said Muldoon, increasing the company's mold-making capacity by more than 20 percent.
Among the equipment added were more hard-milling machines, five-axis milling equipment, both wire-cut and sinker electric discharge machines, and more robotics, he said.
In addition to its mold-making capabilities, Muldoon said the company has seven presses, ranging in size from 30-500 tons, in its development center in Clinton that are used to develop, test and qualify molds for its customers. And one-fifth of its 150 employees work in design.
“The target is to continue to grow the business,” said Muldoon, whose company exhibited for the first time in its 23-year-old history at the Medical Design & Manufacturing East show, held in New York in early June. “We are happy to take the opportunities whether they come from Nypro or elsewhere because mold projects don't come along on any specific schedule.”
Muldoon said that most of the company's mold business is in the health-care and packaging arenas for drug-delivery devices such as inhalers and syringes; closures and containers for pharmaceutical packaging; medical devices, and diagnostic and medical/surgical tools.
The company, which exported molds to eight different countries last year, also has some business in consumer packaging, but 50 percent of its business is in health-care markets.
“We felt that the time was right for us to exhibit at MD&M and expose ourself to the outside world because we've evolved from a mold maker to a start-to-finish mold solutions provider,” said Muldoon. “We strive to produce a plastic part that's fit for use in injection molded production at the cost the customer needs, with a focus on high-precision, high-performance molds.”