Injection molders' medical growth expected to stay high post-pandemic

Injection molders overwhelmingly saw accelerating growth in their medical divisions in 2020. That isn't expected to be a flash in the pan, as demand for testing products remains high.

Denver-based Intertech Plastics Inc. saw "great success" in its medical division over the last year, specifically producing the consumable components for a diagnostic product that tests for respiratory viruses, President Jim Kepler told Plastics News.

One of the injection molder's customers fast-tracked Food and Drug Administration approval to add COVID-19 to its test panel product, which screens for "several viruses at once," Kepler said, and produces results within 15-45 minutes,

"The ability to test for multiple viruses at once differentiates the product we mold for vs. other products that might just be for COVID alone," he said.

That product line was "robust" before the pandemic, and it is expected to stay strong though 2021 and 2022, Kepler added.

Intertech's other growing medical customers include those manufacturing blood and fluid-pathway devices, and blood draw and testing equipment.

Both of the company's divisions are growing at similar rates and each remain about 50 percent of its business, he said.

Kepler said $3 million of a $7 million expansion will go toward its clean room capacity for nine new machines, four of which be installed in 2021, its quality assurance lab and tooling capabilities.

Earlier this year, the company's medical division received MedAccred accreditation.

"The audit process verifies that we have met industry requirements in process capability, equipment, quality controls, qualified personnel and process validation, and eliminates timely steps for our potential customers," Kepler said in a news release at the time. "We want to support medical device manufacturing in the U.S., and this is a step in the right direction."

Intertech was challenged this year by "an acceleration of retirements" early in the year, Kepler said, which he thinks were "driven by perception" changes after the pandemic.

"I don't think it's a coincidence," he said. "We have a lot of change in front of us, and it's an opportunity to hire great people."

Over the last year, Somerset, Pa.-based injection molder Augustine Plastics Inc. purchased three new injection molding machines and increased its labor force by nearly 40 percent to keep up with demand for components for respiratory therapy devices amid the pandemic, Mike Goetz, senior engineer, told Plastics News.

Historically, respiratory therapy accounted for 40-50 percent of the company's revenue, Goetz said. That segment increased to 70 percent last year.

"[The] current outlook suggests that respiratory therapy will likely level off to over 50 percent in 2021," Goetz said "We expect the demand of respiratory products to be higher than historic averages, but not to the levels of 2020. Overall, we expect to have a prosperous 2021."

API found a challenge in sourcing and managing raw materials to meet its increased production, Goetz said.

The company started using an IQMS enterprise resource planning/material requirements planning system to more accurately identify challenges and better manage capacity planning and production requirements, he said.

"Access to more accurate and real-time information supported key business investments to meet the challenges attributed to the sharp increase in production due to COVID-19," Goetz said.

"Most of our materials are specific engineering resins, many custom colored," he said. "We managed to mitigate a lot of the issues currently facing the resin supply chain … with the use of IQMS and constant communication with our customers and vendors."

New Freedom, Pa.-based Crescent Industries Inc. also had challenges securing raw materials, Kevin Allison, vice president of business development, said.

The company has been "keeping a pulse" on material supply chains' volatility as well as "on steel availability for the molds themselves," Allison said.

The injection molder saw its biggest sales last year in pharmaceutical packaging products and testing related products for PCR tests and lab work components, he said, which boosted Crescent to a record year in sales. Products to support the ventilator market also saw an increase.

Orthopedic products; ear, nose and throat product lines; and dental products saw declines, Allison said. "But even with those sectors of the market down, we still had a record year."

Crescent added four new injection molding machines and brought on new production personnel to cover the added demand. At the height of its production levels last year, the company had about 190 employees. That has now leveled out at about 170, Allison said.

"What we're hearing from our clients," he said, is that demand in relation to COVID-19 is not anticipated "to lighten any time soon."

Even at the end of 2021, Allison said, "demand isn't expected to drop off drastically."

"Although these products are being used to support COVID, there are going to be new variants and other kinds of testing in the future," he said. "Some of these platforms are universal in nature. That allows [OEMs] to use different reagents within the same platforms for testing beyond just COVID."