Plastic Injection Moulding specialists Sovrin Plastics is already looking towards the next stage of its investment strategy as the Slough-based injection moulders continues to win new business success in the medical plastics sector. This would involve putting further machines into the impressive new facility that Sovrin Plastics has established a few hundred yards from its main premises on the famous Slough Trading Estate.
The 2,100 sq m premises currently house 8 Demag machines in class 10 000 clean room conditions together with a host of state-of-the-art clean assembly and testing facilities. But as proprietor Peter Joiner explained to PRW at the plant, it was designed with a second machine area in mind to be placed alongside the current moulding facility, separated by material storage and other services.
The 1.25m plant was only opened last year, but is already being well utilised on a range of medical mouldings, notably inhalation devices, blood analysis kits and a variety of other medical products. These are also assembled in sequenced grades of clean conditions on the first floor of the building with fully gowned staff using space age looking magnifying glasses and antistatic in the pristine rooms.
Having opened his first cleanroom 20 years ago, Joiner and his team are experts in the field and built the latest versions to their own design. In all, he told PRW recently, Sovrin Plastics operates a total of 10 cleanrooms covering both moulding, assembly and printing.
A Plaque on the wall to mark Sovrin's purchase of its 50th Demag unit recognises the partnership with this supplier; but the next bank of machines is likely to be the subject of particularly fierce competition in view of Joiner's edict not to buy any more hydraulic moulding machines. All-electric is likely to be the message from now on, not least because of the exacting demands of the company's customers in the healthcare sector.
Sovrin has, of course, made front-page news in the past with the purchase of a Battenfeld Micro system machine, capable of moulding the smallest items in materials that cost as much as £1m a tonne!
The Technology has shown its worth on such projects as moulding minute body biodegradable staples to heal wounds such as those from a Caesarian section with greatly improved cosmetic with greatly improved cosmetic effects. This Insorb technology was developed by Incisive Medical of the US, which recently presented the results to a high-level colloquium. Made from a copolymer of polylactic acid and polyglycolic acid, the subcuticular skin stapler technique combines good cosmetic appearance with rapid closure of the wound.
Sovrin supplies a variety of other market sectors in addition to the healthcare and is certainly not immune from the cold winds of global pressures blowing through the UK moulding sectors, acknowledges Joiner. He believes that the new facility will underline the firm determination to meet the requirements of the famously demanding medical customers. It certainly should impress them with with conditions sometimes more akin to a medical facility than a moulding shop.
Written by Plastics and Rubber Weekly (PRW) - 03.09.2004
