High Performance polymer parts for surgical instruments, medical devices and prosthetics
CYPRESS, TX–(Marketwired – March 22, 2017) – Drake Plastics announces both the capacity and facility expansion of Drake Plastics Medical Products Ltd. Co.
Since inception in February 2016, Drake Plastics Medical has served key customers as both a supplier of specialty medical grade polymers and as a contract manufacturer of medical devices. To accommodate growth, ground breaking for two new buildings dedicated to Drake Plastics Medical is scheduled for April 2017. This will add 24,000 square feet (2200 square meters) of new manufacturing space at Drake’s 45-acre Cypress, Texas campus. Completion of this expansion is scheduled for August 2017 according to Joey King, Drake’s Project and Facilities Manager. Strong market acceptance and growth in the demand for medical conversion is driving the need for additional manufacturing space.
According to Drake’s President, Steven Quance, “Last year we made the decision to apply a dedicated focus toward medical customers. Although Drake Plastics has served medical applications for over a decade, our focus over the past year has been to ‘lean into’ the needs of medical customers from both a supply and quality assurance standpoint. These steps, coupled with our broad capabilities in extrusion, injection molding, precision fabrication and development provide a compelling case for customer engagement which has been validated by new opportunities.”
Regarding quality systems, Kathy Oliveto, Business Manager for Drake Plastics Medical has noted, “Our site is FDA registered as a device manufacturing location and we expect to obtain ISO 13485 certification in 2017. Presently our quality management system is certified to ISO 9001-2008.”
Drake Plastics Medical currently occupies 5000 square feet of dedicated medical manufacturing space. Within this facility are Drake custom designed extruders, dedicated dryers, annealing ovens along with precision fabrication equipment. Capabilities include rod diameters from 2 to 150 mm and flat stock from 10 mils to 25 mm thicknesses. The medical cell’s capabilities range from the conversion of pellets through to final devices with total traceability within the confines of a single facility.
About Drake Plastics Medical Products
Drake Plastics Medical is organized to be a “one-stop shop” for specialty polymers for prototyping to higher volumes of parts made via multiple conversion techniques including machining or and injection molding of PEEK, AvaSpire® PAEK, Amodel, IXEF and Torlon®. Drake also provides stock shapes made from many FDA compliant resins that are well suited for non-implant medical and life science applications. Additionally, Drake’s Process Development Team converts custom formulations, providing customers with customized and confidential conversion services for both implantable and non-implantable polymers, quickly and economically.
About Drake Plastics
Founded in 1996, Drake Plastics pioneered the production of stock shapes from glass reinforced Torlon® 5030 in support of the Javelin Missile Program. Drake offers a continually expanding portfolio of machinable shapes, injection molded parts and precision machined components from Torlon® and specialty PEEK. Drake is an ISO 9001-2008 registered, lean manufacturer. Waste and inefficiency are relentlessly driven out contributing to Drake’s ability to develop and produce unique, high quality engineering plastic products. Drake delivers to customers around the world, on time with exceptional service and support.
