Carclo Technical Plastics will more than double the size of its manufacturing operation in Latrobe, Pa., adding 28,000 square feet of space that will include a white room and a Class 8 clean room.
“We've had a really successful year the past year and we've outgrown our present space,” said Robert Stutzman, Carclo's director of global sales and marketing, in a telephone interview.
The company currently has about 25,000 square feet of space divided between two buildings separated by a parking lot. Stutzman said CTP currently is clearing land to expand one of the buildings and the plan is to have the addition in place by October.
The expansion will create room for about 30 new injection molding machines. Stutzman said decisions are still being made about the machinery and further details will be disclosed later. The addition also will include about 9,000 square feet of Class 8 clean room space.
The company, which currently operates 24-7, has 24 injection molding machines and supporting automation in Latrobe.
Stutzman said CTP is expanding because it is gaining customers in the medical industry, primarily for diagnostics and drug delivery. The medical industry provides the bulk of its business, but the company also supplies optical components, offers its own proprietary LED line and does some automotive and electronics work.
CTP, which also has facilities in Export, Pa., and Tucson, Ariz., employs about 200 overall in the U.S. and operates 61 injection presses with clamping forces of 55-400 tons. It had $93 million in sales in its previous fiscal year, ended March 31, 2012; roughly $38 million came from the U.S. market.
The company is part of Ossett, England-based Carclo plc, which has annual sales of about $150 million.
Stutzman said CTP's customers are seeking more white or clean room space and the company has responded with recent expansions in the United Kingdom and Czech Republic.
In January, Carclo Technical Plastics Ltd. upgraded its London facility, adding all-electric injection molding equipment to provide a dedicated molding cell for point-of-care diagnostic applications. The facility includes two-shot molding and optical cuvette molding.
In January 2012, Carclo boosted its operations in Brno, Czech Republic, adding an automated molding and assembly cell for specialized sensors, and adding clean room injection molding for medical applications.