The new cleanroom project at Polymermedics, is shortlisted for the 2024 PIA Awards in the Supplier Partnership Machinery category.
Wittmann
For Wittmann Battenfeld (WIBA) managing director, Dan Williams, the project delivers a key lesson on customer relationships and growth. "It’s fair to say that manufacturing innovation drives business," he says. "Going the extra mile develops the competence of both supplier and customer. Every new job gives us the opportunity to learn from our customers and vice versa."
WIBA UK customer - St Austell-based Polymermedics - has been fast cementing its reputation as the world-class ‘go to’ contract moulder for high-volume medical mouldings – from micro to mid-size in weight, and all produced in Cleanroom Class 7,8 and 9 environments. The company is also accredited to the Silver EcoVadis environmental standard.
Market success and expansion recently led Polymermedics to convert a wing of its legacy St Austell site into a Class 7 Cleanroom for demanding medical applications.
WIBA UK was selected to equip Polymermedics’ new Class 7 Cleanroom with four Wittman SmartPower Injection Moulding Machines (IMM) - all with Wittmann ancillary equipment. Together with cleanroom builder Kiik, the project was completed within lead time (14 weeks) and within budget. The new cleanroom is already the jewel in the Polymermedics crown, helping win the company new medical business at home and abroad.
Before this cleanroom project began Polymermedics had already invested extensively in various protocols, systems, standards and medical OEM process validations to take the company to a leading supply position in the European Medical market.
Polymermedics operations director, Neil Skyba, notes that "our new Class 7 Cleanroom therefore had to be something very special indeed in order to become the first port of call for our new visitors. I am very happy to say that the project succeeded on all counts."
Thirty years on and under Wittmann ownership the company’s injection moulding technology has made quantum leaps: Adrian says that "the smallest machine footprints, the biggest energy savings and the largest possible platen areas are the key differentiators for us at Wittmann – and those factors helped us immensely in clinching the Polymermedics order."
Wittmann is also unique in plastics in that the company makes and supplies all the IMM ancillary equipment – supplying entire moulding cells as one package from a single source: another clear convenience for any customer.