Tessy Plastics Corp. is expanding clean rooms in two of its facilities in central New York because the company has won new medical programs.
One of the plants to get more clean room space is the corporate headquarters in Skaneateles, N.Y. The other is in nearby Elbridge, N.Y.
After renovating the two injection molding factories, Tessy will have nearly 135,000 square feet of clean room space companywide, said Tessy President Roland Beck.
Tessy bought a former Honeywell building in Skaneateles five years ago, with a proactive approach to house medical operations.
"The building has a total of 21,000 square feet of ISO class 8 clean room space and we initially planned to use it to produce surgical device components for minimally invasive surgery," Joe Raffa, vice president and general manager, said.
Tessy officials decided to expand the clean room there by rearranging the layout of the building, so they could add about 15,000 square feet to the clean room, for a total clean room space in the Skaneateles headquarters of about 36,000 square feet.
"It has been the plan all along to utilize the entire area," Raffa said. "We recently have been awarded new production lines that will utilize about 10 percent of the newly-constructed clean room space. After the room is completed, it will be used to produce surgical components for medical devices and for additional programs in the future."
Tessy employs 1,020 at its five factories in central New York, near Syracuse. The company generates half its business from the medical industry and the other half from consumer products, such as deodorant packaging.
In Elbridge, Tessy runs three plants located on the same site. The original Tessy plant in Elbridge is known as the East plant, and it houses both medical and consumer business. A second plant, the West plant, houses the majority of Tessy's medical business. The South plant accommodates a large portion of Tessy's consumer products business.
Executives decided to expand the clean room space in the East plant to serve incoming programs. Total clean room space in that building will be about 15,000 square feet when the work is completed.
"We are shifting a portion of our current medical customers that are in the West plant to the new clean room in the East plant right next door for new programs and future business opportunities," Raffa said.
By the end of 2019, Tessy will have three plants used for medical business, as the company expects to win more programs in the near future, said Beck, Tessy's president.
"We are excited to see the buildings evolve as we take on new customers and new projects. We look forward to what the future brings," Beck said.