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
July 06, 2015 02:00 AM

GW Plastics looks beyond molding to complete assembly

Gayle S. Putrich
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    File photo
    Riehl

    NEW YORK — Already known as an injection molding and contract manufacturing leader, Vermont-based GW Plastics Inc. is expanding its reach in the medical market with two facility expansions focused on contract device assembly and beyond.

    A new, 125,000-square-foot facility is nearing completion in Dongguan, China, more than doubling the GW presence in southern China, said GW President and CEO Brenan Riehl at the at the June MD&M East trade show in New York.

    “The building is up and we are now fitting it out and we hope to be occupying it in the fourth quarter of this year,” Riehl said. “The new building really allows us to have a much more efficient manufacturing flow, and more importantly it allows us to encompass another of our processes under one roof, from precision tooling to precision molding to contract assembly.”

    The new facility, Bethel, Vt.-based GW's sixth such shop around the world, also will include a product development center to help customers design and develop medical devices for manufacturability, Riehl said. In conjunction with in-house tooling, a core competency of GW, the development center will be able to see customers' molds through the entire design, build, development and validation process, he said.

    The luxury of a lot of space is key for GW to take advantage of the increasing outsourcing trend in medical devices, especially in the growing Asia-for-Asia market, GW executives said, where the company's goal since opening a facility there in 2006 has been to be a trusted local supplier and not an export shop.

    “Especially in the medical device space where we have three-quarters of our business, we want to make sure we have the scalability in order to accept and accommodate ongoing growth,” Riehl said. “This facility really allows us to do that and allows us to set up flexible manufacturing solutions for our customers. We have enough space where we can set up customized work cells, integrated molding and assembly opportunities and again integrate all the capabilities under one roof, so having that product development capability, that tooling capability, the molding capability and then the assembly capability and then sufficient warehouse capability.”

    As OEMs increasingly look for one-stop shops they can trust, GW has been investing heavily in expanding from precision molding to operations up- and down-stream in the manufacturing process. The company's Tucson, Ariz., facility “has transformed itself over the last two years, said Anthony Fleszar, GW's North America sales manager.

    “The scalability of product development, taking parts from early stages of program development through high-volume commercialization provides an opportunity to our customers right through finished devices. And now even on into packaging and distribution,” Fleszar said.

    The recently completed a 30,000-square-foot Tucson expansion, which includes clean room molding, contract assembly, warehousing and regulatory office space. Finished packaging capabilities there include pouching, tray-lidding, rigid and flexible form-fill-seal, final and contract sterilization.

    “Our contract manufacturing business is really growing and we're supporting that growth [with] new capabilities and new facilities,” Riehl said. “Having all that capability which is not only precision molding but manual assembly, automated assembly — we don't want to just assemble for assembly's sake, we want to assemble where we can integrate the molding and the assembly, so it's really a plastic-centric solution with an eye toward lean manufacturing. If you can mold and assemble in the same work cell and do it on a highly automated basis, it drives excellent economics but also strong quality metrics as well.”

    Building out the business beyond molding has meant an investment “in excess of $5 million” in equipment and facilities between the Arizona and China locations, according to Riehl. 

    “We've put our money where our mouth is,” Riehl said. “The real cool value proposition here is that we have the ability to commercialize a project here in the United States, or if our customer wants a local or a low-cost manufacturing option in Asia, we can do it in China as well. We have that continuity of capability, a real global capability that not many companies can do. And then that filter gets even a little smaller when you think about our ability to not only do the molding but the tooling and the contract assembly under one roof.”

    Related story: GW adds tooling capabilities for silicone affiliate

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Georgia home to new PET chemical recycling plant
    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
    OSHA: Worker died at plastics firm after duct tape covered safety guards
    2
    Tornadoes, severe weather impact Texas resin plants
    3
    China-owned parent company of GD Medical Inc. is buying Trademark Plastics for $42M
    4
    Plastics firms work to eliminate PFAS use as pressure mounts
    5
    Eastman posts lower profit, plans job cuts
    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