Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
May 22, 2014 02:00 AM

Trends favor growth for plastics in medical market

Gayle S. Putrich
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Engel
    Visitors check out a Engel press at a recent medical symposium in York, Pa.

    YORK, PA. — It's no secret that the medical device market is exploding right along with the rest of the global health-care industry. It's up to a $56 billion-a-year industry in the United States, more than $140 billion world-wide, and aging populations and government initiatives mean the spending will only go up.

    But with its regulations to navigate and constantly evolving customer demands, medical molding can be a difficult or even intimidating market to break into.

    At technical symposia held on both coasts this spring, Engel North America offered lectures, technology presentation and equipment demonstrations with industry partners, discussing some of the challenges of medical molding and how to get by — or break new ground in the business — with a little help from your friends.

    Medical technology industry veteran Harry Hamme, formerly of Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD), said with U.S. legislation like the U.S. Affordable Care Act and the Chinese government's pledge to get health care to 100 percent of its population by 2020, he expects the global market for plastic in health care to reach $34.9 billion by 2016 and for total U.S. medical plastic processing to exceed 4.4 billion pounds by 2015, more than half in thermoplastics.

    "The most significant growth in the next five years will be in thermoplastic engineering resins and thermosets," Hamme said. For success in such a growing, competitive market, firms will have to differentiate their brands and product lines, starting at the beginning—with materials.

    Combination products using polymers blended with the medications themselves for drug delivery or resins with compounded antimicrobial properties are the kind of creative solutions and innovations that will get materials suppliers a seat a the table, Hamme said.

    Keeping costs down with waste management and sustainability plans also makes for an attractive partner, he said.

    Being willing to invest upfront in the right technology and working with Engel to develop self-contained work cells cut down on waste and overall manufacturing costs, said John Gravelle, CEO of Sterling Manufacturing Co. Inc..

    Embracing technology and “extreme automation” to keep costs down at the Lancaster, Mass.-based company has taken the company's from one to seven Engel injection molding machines with secondary automation, in a Class 100,000 clean room in just 18 months, expanding into PEEK dental implants and polylactic acid implantables and reabsorbable technologies.

    “It's all high-tech and everything [from Engel] is able to be integrated into a customizable package,” Gravelle said. “It's far more cost effective than working with six vendors to bring auxiliary equipment together.”

    Jeff Hershey, Engel's marketing manager for the medical business unit, said the growing medical device market demands “modern and unique” solutions, not just from the devices themselves, but from their manufacturers as well.

    “Clean-room floor space is very expensive,” Hershey said. “Engel can support customers in and outside the clean room.”

    Having partners who understand the medical business and are willing to work together for tailor-made solutions is key, Hershey said, partnering to build robust systems for long-term, high performance throughput that can remain flexible as regulations and customer demands change.

    For example, Engel's e-motion machines feature a fully enclosed lubrication system that used to be only for clean-room-bound equipment but is now becoming standard, as are and exhaust systems developed for the cleanest possible purge process 45 degrees cooler in the clean room to boot.

    As part of the symposia, Engel had an automated e-motion 440/220T cell on hand, making 0.3 mm diameter needle holders for insulin pens in a 96-cavity mold.

    Demonstrations also included e-victory 310H/80W/50V 160 combi three-component injection molding machine with ecodrive and a clean-room design, originally debuted at the 2013 K show, was set up to churn out tri-component drip chambers for blood transfusions, with polypropylene and a polystyrene component injection molded in a single step and an overmolded polypropylene integrated filter with mold production partner Hack Formenbau of Kirchheim in Germany.

    And an all-electric Engel 70/55 LSR US e-mac injection molding machine, equipped for molding liquid silicone rubber, featured a 4-cavity, valve-gated cold runner mold supplied by partner Roembke Manufacturing and Design, based in Ossian, Ind. and an Engel e-mac 310/105 in high execution ran a compact, side-gated 64 cavity runnerless pipette tip mold supplied by St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Cavaform International.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Industry sees Biden bioplastics goal as serious signal
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Biden sets US goal to replace 90% of plastics with biomaterials
    2
    Industry sees Biden bioplastics goal as serious signal
    3
    Report urges treaty to regulate plastics like pharmaceuticals, limit growth
    4
    One injured in explosion at Ineos cumene plant in Texas
    5
    Engineering resin prices close the first quarter with a drop
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified