MackMedical has expanded its medical device manufacturing services to include Class 100,000 cleanroom molding.

Mack chose electric presses for its new molding cleanroom to optimize energy efficiency and precise process control.

“This represents the latest in a long list of investments Mack has made in the medical
market over the last 12 years,” says Jeff Somple, president of Mack’s Northern Operations. “Dedicated to reusable and disposable medical applications, this facility will be particularly well-suited for the injection molding needs of our orthopedic customers.”

The 2,000-sq-ft modular design features removable panels to facilitate future expansion.
Dual air-lock, rapid roll-up doors allow for easy product flow and quick tool changes. Just
completed, the cleanroom is certified to the ISO 14644-1 Class 8 standard.

Equipped with new electric presses
The new facility houses six electric injection molding machines from Toshiba Machine Co.,
Ltd. All are 110-ton, high-precision machines from Toshiba’s EC Servo Electric Series. Chosen
for energy-efficiency and precise process control, Mack expects about 60 percent less energy
consumption from these machines over their equivalent hydraulic counterparts. The presses
are also outfitted with high pressure water controllers to allow more versatility in resin
selection.

Other clean-air operations
Cleanroom molding rounds out Mack’s other clean-air operations, which include a separate,
but adjacent, whiteroom molding facility. The whiteroom houses four Engel hydraulic
presses – three 100-ton and one 40-ton. The 24-hour whiteroom operation is currently
dedicated to molding orthopedic trials and medical disposables. It is ideal for low-volume,
multicolor products requiring quick resin and tool changes.

Also housed at Mack’s headquarters plant is a Class 100,000 cleanroom for assembly. This
2100-sq-ft resource is used for non-sterile packaging of medical disposables, light sonic weld
assembly, and temperature- and humidity-controlled functional testing.

Making a thick-walled part with an internal foam structure isn’t new. For decades, the plastics industry has been using the structural foam and microcellular foam processes to produce skin-core-skin structures with foamed bubbles.

The result is a light, but stiff, part that can be produced with lower tonnage and few, if any, sink marks. The downside is a swirled surface, due to out-gassing trapped at the part/mold interface, which ultimately requires secondary painting for good cosmetics. Several approaches have been employed over the years to improve surface quality, including gas counter pressure, hot/cold mold cycling, expanding molds, Teflon film or other coatings, co-injection molding, vapor polishing, and so on.

An ETM cell structure as viewed through a reflection electron microscope. Note: 500 µm = 0.5 mm.

A newer approach is expandable thermoplastic microspheres (ETM), commercially known as Expancel, which has been used for some time in the extrusion process but is only now finding its place in injection molding. ETMs are small spherical thermoplastic resin particles comprised of a virtually gas-proof polymer shell that encapsulates hydrocarbons as a blowing agent. The average diameter of the hollow spheres ranges from 6-45 µm. Fully expanded, the volume of the microspheres can increase more than 40 times.

The typical expansion temperatures range from 80º to 190ºC (176º to 374ºF). When heating the microspheres, the pressure of the gas inside the shell increases as the thermoplastic shell softens, resulting in a dramatic volumetric increase. Cooling stiffens the outer shell to its original state, leaving the light, expanded microspheres ready for use. Because little or no gas escapes from the microspheres, the surface quality of the molded part is dramatically improved.

The use of ETMs in injection molding enables part weight reduction while maintaining dimensional stability. Compared with structural foam or microcellular injection molding technology, the expandable microspheres improve surface quality substantially, reducing or eliminating the need for secondary operations. This is accomplished by controlling the size, density and skin layer thickness of the microstructure with the amount of ETM used.

During recent samplings, we have experienced base density reductions up to 50% in ETM-molded parts. This density reduction matches that found in microcellular foam molded parts, and certainly exceeds the 5-25% average density reduction typically achieved with structural foam molding. Part size and wall thickness, as well as the ratio of base resin to ETM, are determining factors in the process and must be optimized on a part-by-part basis.

The above post was written by Michael Hansen, PhD, Senior Technical Development Engineer, MackMedical/Mack Molding
michael.hansen@mack.com

We’ve established a channel on YouTube and uploaded our first video. Mack has had amazing success with a new recycling strategy for corrugate, going from 45,000 lbs of recycled cardboard per year to 270,000 lbs! Check us out on www.YouTube.com and search for Mack Molding, or watch the video below!

Mack’s mission is Total Customer Satisfaction. I know…it sounds lofty. But Mack breaks it down into four criteria, measures our performance in each area quarterly, and compensates us based on whether we’ve reached our goals. Recently, Ray Burns, president of Mack Molding’s southern operations, discussed the program in more detail as part of Plastics News’ Lessons in Leadership video series. Check it out…

As we look at the results of Tropical Storm Irene in the rear view mirror, we’d like to pause for a moment to thank our customers for their understanding and support. Even though trucks couldn’t initially get to our Cavendish plant, there was minimal disruption to customer commitments, a testament to both customer flexibility and the extremely hard work of our Cavendish employees.

Out of emergency mode and into the rebuilding phase, we’re replacing floors and painting walls. By Christmas, you’ll be able to tour a ‘new and improved’ Cavendish, with no hint of the flood damage left in Irene’s wake.

Most importantly, we’re fully operational. In fact, as I write this, the plant is undergoing its normal end-of-quarter inventory, which will clearly illustrate the status of all purchased parts.

This will be our last blog about the Cavendish flood, and I hope to NEVER have to write another one! Before closing, though, I want to applaud our staff once again, both in Cavendish and from the other plants that pitched in – they have shown an incredible work ethic and devotion to Mack Molding, for which we are all extremely grateful!

Look for news on a different topic in our next blog, and be sure to sign up for the RSS Feed to be automatically notified when updates are posted.

Jeff Somple
President, Northern Operations

Mack’s Cavendish plant continues to operate at full strength. In fact, we have added temporary staff to help with the critical task of purchased part inventory, the area of the plant that suffered the most water damage. We have established an inventory triage area where purchased parts are being sorted, inspected and evaluated. We have set up multiple cleaning stations for parts that can be salvaged, as well as a temporary warehouse for damaged goods that need to be dispositioned.

Additional resources from Purchasing, Quality and Sales/Engineering have been on-site to assist with decision-making and customer communication. The extra efforts from the Cavendish workforce have been incredible!

The molding machines and auxiliary equipment are in very good shape and focused on production. The finishing department is split between production and inventory analysis, as described above.

While the flooding eroded some of the rear parking lot, we have had over 50 dump trucks of fill delivered to date, and expect to add about 30 more. This work should be completed by the end of next week. Once finished, we can repair the foundation for the resin silo.

As mentioned in an earlier post, our Business Continuity/Emergency Response Plan was put into action immediately. Much of the plan worked exactly as it should. While we didn’t anticipate some of the challenges posed by hurricanes and flooding, rare events in Vermont, we’re working to improve the plan to address even these most extreme situations.  Opportunities for improvement should never go to waste!

As we get new information regarding Cavendish, we will share it here. Sign up for the RSS Feed to be automatically notified when updates are posted.

Jeff Somple
President, Northern Operations

Incredible effort throughout the Labor Day weekend from Mack crews, who continued to work on both production and cleanup — great work! The town was also busy, cleaning up area roads and installing a new water line to the plant. We now have water, which will allow production and cleanup to progress faster and easier. Crews also installed a new transformer Saturday morning, so we now have full electrical service to the entire building. While there is still a lot of cleanup work to do, the plant is now fully functional.

As we get new information regarding Cavendish, we will share it here. Sign up for the RSS Feed to be automatically notified when updates are posted.

Jeff Somple
President, Northern Operations

Unless you’ve had your nose stuck in a book for the last week, you’ve no doubt seen some of the devastation Irene dealt to the state of Vermont. While ‘hurricanes’ and ‘Vermont’ are typically not found in the same sentence, this storm was anything but typical! Our thoughts go out to all those affected, especially our fellow Vermonters.

From Mack’s perspective, we were exceptionally lucky! Two of our three manufacturing plants – Headquarters and Arlington – are fully operational with no storm-related damage. Our Cavendish facility did incur some water damage, so we are following our Business Continuity/Emergency Response Plan to assess customer impact, if any. Should we determine that a mold needs to run to meet customer needs, our other plants stand ready to receive and run tools.

Currently, the water has receded and employees are able to get to the plant to help with cleanup. Already, it is beginning to look like Cavendish again! Power has been restored, and town crews are hard at work to restore water to the facility. No molds were damaged, and inventory appears to be in good shape. We expect to begin shipping and receiving tomorrow.

As we get new information regarding Cavendish, we will share it here, so please check back often.

Best wishes,
Jeff Somple
President, Northern Operations

Mack is growing and looking for good people to grow with us! Several new job opportunities have just been posted to our employment section. So if you (or someone you know) are looking for a new professional challenge and enjoy the great outdoors — skiing, snowboarding, hiking, fishing, golfing, and more – check us out! We’d really like to talk with you…

Mack Molding was named a winner of Managing Automation Communications’ prestigious 2011 Progressive Manufacturing 100 Award last week at the Manufacturing Leadership Summit, Palm Beach, Fla. Mack was recognized for redefining the company as a major North American manufacturer in the new millennium.

A decade ago, amidst the throes of a recession that drove major technology OEMs to offshore manufacturing, Mack crafted a new business model that would expand its position as both a contract manufacturer for the medical market, as well as a custom plastic molder of super-large parts. With great strides being made on both of those fronts, Mack has concentrated of late on the third leg of the business model – big, bulky, complex products – that diversify its markets beyond medical and emphasizes its services beyond injection molding.

“This aspect of our business model drives us toward products that are too large to be manufactured efficiently overseas and too complex to be confidently and expediently managed from offshore locations,” explains Jeff Somple, president, Mack Molding Northern Operations. Examples include a fully automated self-cleaning commercial milkshake blender, mail sorters and production mail systems, solar-powered municipal trash compactors and recycling systems, RFID inventory management systems, and insect control systems for lawn and garden care. In all instances, Mack’s vertical integration of services, including product development, plastics injection molding, sheet metal fabrication, machining, and total product assembly are called into play.

Mack was honored along with a list of blue-ribbon manufacturing companies from around the world, including Caterpillar, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, Ford, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, and Nestle. “These companies have demonstrated an ability to rethink their businesses and apply advanced technologies in innovative ways that manufacturers everywhere would be well served to emulate,” says David Brousell, a PM100 judge. “The PM100 winners this year are role models for the successful manufacturing company of today and in the future.”