Beacon MedTech partners with Sumitomo Demag for medical disposables

Beacon MedTech Solutions has a new partnership with Sumitomo (SHI) Demag to meet increased demand for single-use disposables for biopharma applications, Class 2 medical devices and LSR molding.

The partnership will help Beacon's customers "deliver new products to the market on time and on budget and to ensure that there's adequate capacity and scale to [allow for] … product line extensions and to capture some share on the post-COVID rebound," Michael McGee, president of Beacon MedTech, told Plastics News.

"Sumitomo (SHI) Demag worked directly with our technical and engineering departments to optimize the presses to meet demanding, complex medical product specifications," McGee said in a Jan. 25 news release.

Through the partnership, Beacon MedTech will add new SE-EV-A series injection molding machines to its 110,000-square-foot facility in Leominster, Mass., and install additional presses in the first half of 2022, the release said.

Bob May, CEO of Beacon Manufacturing Group, declined to comment on the cost of the investment in an interview with PN, but he said Beacon is spending "significant capital" on both assets and capabilities to support future growth for the company.

The investment, which also includes hiring new employees, is "just one of many" for Beacon, he added.

Beacon MedTech acquired the Leominster facility, which will become its new headquarters, when it bought injection molding company Acromatic Plastics in October 2021, May said.

Beacon also includes the previously acquired Lancaster, Mass.-based Built-Rite Tool & Die Inc. and its subsidiaries, Reliance Engineering and LSR Engineering.

Demand for single-use disposables and at-home diagnostics and monitoring products saw a "significant lift" due to the COVID-19 pandemic, McGee said, "as the personalization of the health care market grows."

"The ability of people to monitor their own vital stats and such require a significant amount of manufacturing technologies that include insert overmold [and] very sensitive electromechanical sensors into some compliant materials," he said.

As it continues to make investments across the business, including new ERP and MRP system platforms, processing and material handling equipment and "build out" of Class 7 and Class 8 clean rooms for molding and assembly, McGee said, Beacon MedTech is focusing on choosing the right partners.

"In plastics, it's all about relationships and partnerships," he said. "We're very fortunate to be in an industry with a significant amount of advanced manufacturing technology. We have a lot of partners to choose from and it's a difficult choice, but … you want to make sure it works for both parties.

"This partnership will allow our team to maximize productivity while maintaining the commitment to operational efficiency that allows us to deliver the speed and responsiveness our customers expect," McGee added.

The Sumitomo Demag presses come with direct-drive servo motors on clamp and injection movements, mold parallelism to ensure the mold is square and assembled correctly and front flow control to provide precision control to ensure consistent filling, the release said.

They also feature interchangeable screw and barrels and integration with automation, including standard robots, guarding and conveyors.

"Beacon MedTech Solutions is an ideal manufacturer to leverage Sumitomo (SHI) Demag's technologically advanced injection molding equipment given its focus on complex, highly engineered parts for the medical, life sciences and biopharma industries," Bob Brady, Sumitomo Demag's medical business development manager, said in the release.