Tessy Plastics Corp. will invest $20 million in 2020, much of it to add more clean room space and investing in injection presses at one of its factories in Elbridge, N.Y.
The project includes molding and assembly of a surgical filtration device. The company moved deodorant stick production to another plant to make room for the new medical work.
Tessy will also add 100,000 square feet of warehouse space to the building, known as the South Plant, for the medical customer, President Roland Beck said in a Dec. 24 telephone interview. That factory currently measures 190,000 square feet, including 69,000 square feet of warehouse space.
Tessy will create 50 additional jobs.
In late 2017, the company relocated the deodorant work from its South Plant to the North Plant, in nearby Baldwinsville, N.Y., to mold, assemble, pack and ship from one location. The move freed up space in the South Plant.
Beck said that Tessy won business from a new medical customer in 2019 for the single-use product. The finished assembly, made up of seven molded components, is a filtration device that goes on a surgical suction instrument that collects specimens, he said. It filters out polyps and other objects for testing.
He declined to identify the customer. The medical product probably won't go into production until 2021, Beck said.
For the new project, Tessy is adding eight injection molding machines of up to 420 tons of clamping force. Two of them are for molding liquid silicone rubber components. The investment also includes an automated assembly line for producing 13 million assemblies per year, Beck said.
The customer had originally wanted some parts with another material. But during a design review, research and development engineers from Tessy and the customer determined that they could use LSR. Tessy molded prototype LSR parts, which were tested and approved by the customer.
Tessy also built the protype LSR molds, Beck said.
Tessy already does LSR molding and has in-house talent in that process, he said.
"There will be no purchased components and we'll mold everything," Beck said.
The investment also includes an automated assembly line for producing 13 million parts per year, Beck said.
The Central New York Regional Economic Development Council made the Tessy expansion project one of its 30 priority projects for state funding. The state is providing $5 million for the expansion.
Tessy, based in Skaneateles, N.Y., has a total of 135,000 square feet of clean room space at its factories.