Minneapolis-based Diversified Plastics Inc. is expanding its product offerings with the addition of a new micromolding machine in a class 8 clean room to make parts for medical devices and electronics.
The new operation resulted from an opportunity to work with a key existing customer for a polycarbonate-based part that features a tapered hole, 0.006 inches wide on the small side and 0.008 inches on the wider side, Rodd Joos, vice president of operations, told Plastics News.
"Processing around those little cores is challenging but we've proven we're able to do it," Joos said.
The company has received requests for micromolded parts in the past and had to turn them down, he said, adding that its target is the medical market.
"We have the ability to package in a clean room environment," Joos said. "What we produce will likely go to a sterilization vendor before it goes to our customer."
DPI will use a wide variety of engineering-grade resins.
"It's our goal over the next two years, as demand ramps up … to add capacity," Joos said. "The clean room [has space] for a total of five machines."
"DPI has extensive experience with tight tolerances and difficult-to-manufacture parts," Tom Venable, chief business officer at DPI, said in a June 7 news release. "We also have expertise in micromolding materials and process validation to help customers get to market faster."
The injection molder's new operations will be able to provide components with wall thicknesses as little as 0.007 inches and holes as small as .004 inches, the release said.
DPI has three class 8, ISO 13485 and 9001 clean rooms for molding and assembling medical units, catheters, diagnostic methods, drug supply units and surgical devices among others.
DPI is employee owned and also specializes in injection molding and additive manufacturing for medical gadget, industrial, electronics and other markets.