MTD Micro Molding expanding in Massachusetts

Charlton, Mass. —​ MTD Micro Molding will build a 12,000-square-foot expansion at its headquarters plant in Charlton.

MTD President Dennis Tully said the company has not sought building proposals yet, and is still looking at several potential options for expanding at its existing location. In a Jan. 9 interview at MTD, he said it probably will take about a year before the addition is complete.

MTD, which specializes in molding tiny medical components, many of them implantable parts that are bioresorbable, currently operates in a 16,000-square-foot building.

MTD employs 32 and runs 13 injection molding presses, mostly Sodicks. The company makes its own molds.

Gary Hulecki, executive vice president, said the expansion will house all the tooling operations, leaving the original manufacturing space dedicated to clean room molding and assembly.

The company started as a mold maker and gradually added clean room molding operations. Moving all the tooling activity to its own area will allow MTD to reconfigure the molding and assembly operations and bring in more equipment and people, Tully said.

He said MTD has been adding about two or three employees a year for the past few years, and officials expect that steady hiring rate to continue.

"Now we can take a piece of paper and draw up what we want to do with the remaining space," he said.

Currently, MTD has about 3,000 square feet of clean room production.

The expansion also will add material storage space, and, in a first for MTD, a fitness center.

Hulecki got the idea for the fitness center when he read an article about attracting and retaining talented workers that said giving employees a place to work out — at work — is an important perk. People are busy with work and their families, he said, and they sometimes have trouble squeezing in a trip to a fitness center.

Employees will schedule times to use the facility during the work day. "You're getting paid during the day to exercise," Hulecki said.

Hulecki said the fitness center could help employees reduce stress and improve their health. Gym use also can help MTD reduce its health care costs, he said.

"We want to be the best micromolder out there, so we've got to have the best employees," Hulecki said.

MTD deals with very challenging parts, often taking on micromolded parts other processors cannot do. Some are deemed "impossible" to mold and tool up. Taking a break can help the creative process and make people more productive, according to Tully and Hulecki.

One example is Peter Wojtas, an MTD process engineer. He runs at lunchtime, and often comes back with a solution to a challenging problem. Hulecki said if Wojtas is pondering an especially difficult project, he just goes on a longer run.