The Class 7 clean room inside the Plymouth, Minn., headquarters of ProMed Molded Products has received an upgrade, with eyes on automated manufacturing.
The expansion project added automated machines, computerized product inspection and capabilities for high volume projects, according to Brian Reilly, ProMed's product director of healthcare materials. The project was "a long time coming," Reilly said, and has opened a variety of doors for ProMed in creating high-risk components at a high volume.
"Historically, [high volume projects] wouldn't have been the type of business that we would chase," Reilly said. "But over time, we've proven to find solutions for customers, and if they have an issue or a problem or a challenge, they typically will give us a call."
The expanded 1,500-square-foot clean room will assist with ProMed's work in silicone component molding, Reilly said. He added that the room will be especially useful in the silicone medical device molding space, as well as other areas with small margins of error for product dimensions, where the company does most of its work.
"People looking for high-purity, high-quality, tightly toleranced parts, that's kind of the niche that we fill," Reilly said.
While the clean room is not at capacity with projects yet, Reilly feels confident that the facility will pay for itself in time.
"We've done the math," he said. "And the ROI says, assuming we can fill up some of that capacity with some new projects, we should be able to pay ourselves back in a reasonable amount of time."