Arlington, Vt.-based injection molder Mack Molding Inc. acquired two new Haas three-axis machining centers to meet increased demand from one of its existing medical customers for plastic ventilator components.
"After a quick analysis the team determined the work would outpace our current capacity, so we jumped right in and immediately invested in the machines," President Jeff Somple said in a May 5 news release.
Mack received the machines on May 4. The company expects to set up and test the units for about a week before starting production, according to the release.
"Mack is experiencing increased demand across the board from our medical customers driven by products being used in the COVID-19 response, but also in general," Somple said in an emailed statement to Plastics News.
But, he said in the email, "time will tell whether the growth is here to stay. … As much as we are seeing growth in our medical segment, we have seen other customers' needs become limited as they were not deemed essential under pandemic guidelines.
"As states begin to ease their stay-in-place restrictions hopefully these programs will return, but for now the only certainty is we are operating in a new world and the Mack team, like many manufacturers, has risen to meet the challenge."