Medical

Medical device molder Pacific Plastics & Engineering, a contract manufacturer and custom injection molder, added another stand-alone 1000-ft² Class (7) 10,000 cleanroom within the facility’s existing footprint. The new cleanroom contains automated lines for assembly and secondary operations including pad printing, assembly, and heatstaking. This expands the company’s production line to include two Class (7) 10,000 cleanrooms, the first containing six presses, and five Class (8) 100,000 soft-walled cleanrooms.

That's the view of Clariant Masterbatches (Muttenz, Switzerland), which was presenting its package of dedicated products and support designed to help customers' control risk in medical device manufacture and pharmaceutical packaging at the recent Medtec China show in Shanghai. (The Medtec show is organized by PlasticsToday owner Canon Communications.)

Hot runner supplier Ewikon’s major focus over the past year has been to expand and optimize its range of hot runner products for medical applications. The result is a broad range of hot runner technology specifically targeted to meet the demands of the medical industry for both high-volume disposables or the production of precision components where safety is a major consideration.   

A visit to the drugstore of yesteryear would have seen the patient confronted with a plethora of non-descript white or amber containers capped with black or white closures. But pharmaceutical companies nowadays believe that putting color into packaging can go a long way to boosting sales.

A plastic package for sending mail-order vitamins and similar products through standard letter post, rather than the more expensive parcel post, has been introduced. The blowmolded HDPE package, with its width-to-depth ratio of more than 4:1, created a significant technical challenge for the processor, RPC Containers.

Still need another niche to help protect your business from competition, both local and overseas? If your company’s skill set is large, then maybe you should think small, as in very tiny components.

Japan’s population is not just shrinking, it’s also aging. By October of this year, an estimated 23.1% of its population will be 65 or older vs. just 13% of the population aged less than 15 years old.

India's Bilcare Research spent approximately $130 million (€100 million) to acquire the global film extrusion operation of Ineos, one of the world's largest suppliers of petrochemicals and plastics. A binding agreement between the two, announced today (Aug. 2), includes Ineos' films operations, assets and personnel in North America, Europe, and Asia.

A German toothbrush manufacturer has turned to Zahoransky (Todtnau-Geschwend, Germany) for a fully automated solution to package interdental brushes. The high-quality, reusable clamshell pack being produced is designed so that it can also be used as a storage box.

Swedish molder Nolato AB has established a North American production base through the acquisition of Contour Plastics (Baldwin, WI) for $22 million. Nolato, which injection molds plastic, rubber, silicone, and thermoplastic elastomers, will rename the acquired business "Nolato Contour." Contour, which is largely focused on the medical market, has annual sales of around $22 million and employs 180.