Minnesota Rubber and Plastics expansion accelerates time to market

It's a new dawn, it's a new day ... and Minnesota Rubber and Plastics is feeling good about its recently completed, $6 million Innovation Center.

The 8,500-square-foot space is dedicated to designing, prototyping, testing and building tight threshold and complex geometry components for the medical industry, mainly using custom black rubber and silicone.

The unique center — "more than an official square footage or a facility for tours," according to MRP CEO Jay Ward — is intended to foster design collaboration between customers and MRP's material scientists and engineers, accelerate innovation and bring products to market more quickly.

"A couple years ago, the MRP team asked itself, 'What do we need to do to sustain double-digit growth?' " Ward said May 26 during a grand opening and virtual tour of the facility. "We sought our answer in the market itself. We spoke to our Fortune 500 customers, market experts ... we even talked to our competitors.

"What was confirmed for us is that our customers want a collaborative partnership that can help bring their products to market faster."

Those early discussions led MRP to this center, a facility that allows for a new approach to design and manufacturing as products transition from nebulous product idea to precise, functioning prototype.

"This moment is so special, as it is more than an official square footage or a facility for tours," Ward said. "The center represents a new way to do business, bringing new ideas to life, where customers, engineers and problem solvers work together to push the boundaries of material science.

"Even with the severe supply chain challenges, we are on time and on budget," he said.

Functionality in prototyping and time-to-market are key tenets at the new center, according to Karthik Viswanathan, vice president of product development at MRP.

The company said the new center can reduce development time from 10 weeks to inside two weeks — a crucial time window for any company on the cutting of technology in the medical arena.

"Our state-of-the-art innovation center will provide customers full access to best-in-class capabilities ... with new levels of creativity, innovation and an entirely new level of speed to market," Viswanathan said. "Ultimately, we built this innovation center for our customers."

MRP broke ground on the facility in September 2021. The center currently employs five design, tooling and testing experts, part of the more than 1,300 people that MRP employs overall.

"Given the success we are already having in creating innovative solutions for our customers, we expect to double this over the next six months with an additional two new hires coming onboard this summer," Viswanathan told Rubber News June 30.

The "first builds" at the Innovation Center went out the door last month, and the company already has secured "several new program wins" as a result of the new facility, Viswanathan said.

For a company like ScaleReady, a joint venture between Fresenius Kabi, Bio-Techne and Wilson Wolf that works in cell and gene therapy manufacturing, agility and pace to market are crucial.

"And we need vendors that are proactive in keeping pace with our demands and the demands of our field," said Josh Ludwig, global director of commercial operations at ScaleReady, which maintains global headquarters in Germany and U.S. operations in Lake Zurich, Ill.

"We are working on challenging manufacturing problems and treating challenging diseases. There are minor changes to tools and major changes to tools in our field. And getting these iterations done faster is critical for us."

Enter MRP and its Innovation Center, which begins its customer collaboration in the critical, multi-step design phase.

"Innovation starts with design," said Mike Hebert, research and development director at MRP. "In this area we have design, tooling and process engineers. Getting all the people in the same room on day one ensures competent, scale-ready production ... we know the questions to ask to get a deep understanding for what is needed for an optimal end-product."

The experts in the laboratory — the custom compounding gurus — are next up in the process, as they attempt to narrow down the best materials for a given component and its operating environment.

"We usually know right where to start," said Tim Reski, a rubber technology expert at MRP. "We will explore several ingredients for a compound. Custom black rubber typically has up to 1,000 percent elongation and tensile strength up to 4,000 psi."

Silicone is another common alternative in the MRP center, if it can be obtained, as supply is a major problem in the silicone industry.

To this end and with a touch of foresight, MRP and its parent company, Quadion LLC, acquired Primasil Silicones Ltd. in March, a silicone compounder, molder and extruder based in Weobly, England.

MRP previously did not have silicone compounding capabilities before this acquisition.

"At every stage, we are thinking about component manufacturability, how [the product] will be formed and produced to scale," Reski said.

The final selected material then is tested "in every conceivable condition that the part might endure," according to Rachael Tervo, research and development lab supervisor at MRP. "We will pull and stretch the material until it reaches its limits."

The last phase of the design process represents a first look at how a component might be manufactured, using digital tools to measure heat distribution and other parameters that ultimately will be critical in understanding how a part might be produced in high volumes.

"The earlier we can work with the customer in the final design process, the better," said Matt Thomas, product design expert at MRP.

As the design phase closes, the prototyping phase begins, according to Bill Whitney, a mold and tooling expert at MRP.

"Here, we are building the tools that will mold the new compound," Whitney said. "This is a really exciting new in-house capability with the Innovation Center. The machines we use can make cuts so fine that a single strand of human hair looks giant in comparison."

Whatever tool is formed for a particular product then is taken over to the press, to be used in concert with the materials from the development and design team to form a prototype product.

"This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak," said Nathan May, a process science and engineering expert at MRP.

With an Engel press in the background, May said this is often the most gratifying moment in product development at the center.

"Everything comes together at this machine to make the prototype for the customer," he said. "If everything is done right, this very piece should be fully functional—like the thousands of parts to be produced later on."

MRP's testing procedures on the prototype then ensure functionality "beyond the limitations of the naked eye," May said, "ensuring that the product is ready for full-scale production."

The high-volume building phase is the final step at the Innovation Center, according to Dave Furlong, vice president of sales and marketing at MRP.

"This is the culmination point, the moment when we rapidly iterate the design—all with no middle man nor poorly-thought out production plans," Furlong said. "For the most challenging applications, you have to understand the best design. The main goal is to have all up-front design and collaboration steps under one roof."

MRP has kept its ear to the manufacturing and acquisition rail, analyzing opportunities as they present themselves.

It is how MRP has grown to become a global company, with 10 locations across North America, Asia and Europe.

The acquisition of Primasil in March came after MRP acquired Pawling Engineered Products of New York in June 2021, giving the company a greater presence in the inflatable seal and extruded solutions space.

Primasil brought about 175 employees to the 1,300-person MRP, all of whom will become owners of MRP through its employee ownership program, offered by Americas at KKR, the third-largest private equity firm in the world.

The KKR model differs from an Employees Stock Ownership Program, which is meant to hold stock for the long term and often ends up owning the entire company.

The acquisition of Primasil will complement the launch of the Innovation Center, MRP said, expanding the company's global scope in the medical end-market.

"Not only will the acquisition augment our materials science and manufacturing capabilities, but it will also expand our global scope — particularly in the medical end market—and further our plans to expand our European footprint while we actively look to partner and acquire technical elastomer companies across the region," Ward said.

Primasil, founded in 1978, offers platinum-cured and conductive silicones, black rubber, fluorosilicones, and low smoke and toxicity silicones. The company provides precision manufacturing and clean room molding, as well as extrusion capabilities in Weobly, as well as in another location in the Czech Republic.

Primasil's facility in western England has about 55,000 square feet of space, including 3,000 square feet of clean room area. The remainder is manufacturing and warehouse space, according to Furlong.

Complementing this warehouse space is another 25,000 square feet of full-scale molding space that Primasil — and now MRP — has in the Czech Republic.

Furlong said MRP "is always having conversations" with companies, exploring acquisition opportunities.

"MRP acquired Primasil and Pawling Engineered Products within the last 12 months, and our new Innovation Center is already supporting and driving value within these new companies within our portfolio," Viswanathan said. "MRP remains active in its pursuit of partnering with high quality, materials-science-focused companies around the globe.

"Above all, we value a strong cultural fit. We have added two great companies over the last 12 months and expect to do the same in the near future."

Ward said Primasil adds geographic and technical advantages.

"We have a long history of successfully serving our customers in Europe, and the addition of a highly technical production presence in the U.K. and Czech Republic will allow us to take our local capabilities to the next level," he added.