POLYMER TURNS 37!
March 5th will mark Polymer’s 37th successful year in business and we would like to take this opportunity to say…
We sincerely appreciate all of the partnerships that you have allowed us to build over the years. Our teamwork is proof that together we can fill our futures with excitement and prosperity, while maintaining the highest level of quality, precision and opportunity to develop industry-leading products, technology and services.
Our team looks forward to many more years of slow calculated growth, making new connections, and continuing to nurture the long-term relationships built on honesty, integrity, loyalty, trust, and the mutual desire to do things right the first time. PCI will continue to treat employees and guests like family, and will strive to open our arms and minds to new, creative ideas for additional continuous improvement activities as well as a continued focus on operational excellence.
We look forward to supporting you on your critical journey towards meeting and exceeding new corporate visions, missions, goals and aspirations.
RAPID 3D-PRINTED TOOLING
Fast turnaround on prototype development parts is easier & less expensive with 3D-printed tooling!
In order to beat competitors to market, we’ve recognized that medical device companies are looking for contract manufacturers with the shortest lead times possible, as well as lowered tooling costs that still maintain critical quality requirements. Although it’s not a brand new concept, 3D printed parts and tooling has caused a shift in the global marketplace with technology that can help OEM’s get to market faster with lower risk in excess program costs.
Building high quality, tight-tolerance prototype tooling made from P20 steel, or even aluminum, can be costly and incur undesirably long lead times, but is still the only way to get true 100% quality pre-clinical parts in the exact called out material on prints. However, in an effort to help our customers lower their risk and development costs, Polymer is now offering clients a faster and cheaper alternative.
3D-printed prototype tooling has allowed Polymer Conversions the ability to offer quickly made cavity sets that fit into our?????????????????????????????????. The advantage: quick turnaround, at least half the cost of a complete steel prototype mold, and your samples can be made with similar? ??????????????match to production material characteristics. The disadvantage: short life span, and doesn’t work well with high temp materials. Although 3D-printed tooling is only meant to produce a small number of development parts, the good news is that small investments can be made in additional sets of printed 3D tool cavities for more development parts, while still staying well below the total cost of the metal alternative. This is especially advantageous if customers expect (and even if they don’t) to make minor changes to the part design throughout the preproduction process.
WHAT’S NEW?
2015 saw us acquire new services and additional talent:
In 2015, Polymer Conversions hired an additional 20 employees. 4 were talented Molding Process Engineers, one of which was a returning employee. This now allows us to perform product validations across all shifts. 1 was a dynamic Project Engineer to fill the big shoes of a retiring, long-time friend and colleague. The rest were motivated teammates to increase all hands on deck in our QA and post-molding “Secondary” departments, and to fill a few vacancies. (The Secondary personnel, allow us to now keep certain jobs running all 3 shifts.)
PCI now offers 3D-printed tooling to help ease the burden of lengthy lead times and prototype tooling costs for steel molds. (see Rapid 3D-Printed Tooling section above)
Acquisition of new customers allows us to delve deeper into the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industries. Their clients are some of the world’s largest medical OEM’s looking for high quality, tight-tolerance products and assemblies made in the USA. Our Validated, World-Class product and process control ensures they can stay ahead of their competition while focusing on new innovative designs for Critical-to-Life product lines.
SILICONE MOLDING UPDATE
SILIKON continues to perform regular business start-up activities and is still quoting fast and furiously on exciting new opportunities.
Our Director of Silicone Operations, Patrick Meheran, has been working feverishly to put together its processing/production control & safety procedures and to complete the formal quality manual for NSF agents to audit the company to ISO 13485 certification standards.
Patrick was one of the main authors for Polymer’s original quality manual resulting in its successful first ISO registration, so we have no doubt that this task is in the right hands, and will be done with great proficiency and detail.
Make sure to connect to SILIKON Tech’s website, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts for additional updates.