Custom thermoformer Prent is still expanding

Using a plant in Janesville, WI as a launching pad, Prent Corp. now manufactures in six other locations, including China, Malaysia, Denmark and Singapore. With sales well above $200 million annually, it may be the world's largest custom thermoformer of rigid plastic packaging for the medical, electronics and consumer markets.

In an interview with PlasticsToday.com, CEO Joseph T. Pregont said that Prent will open a new plant in Costa

Joe Pregont assumed leadership of family-owned Prent in 1985.

Rica; is in the process of doubling the size of the plant in Malaysia; and will "definitely" open new plants in the next few years.

Organically funded

More details about future expansion plans are proprietary at the privately held company, which interestingly has fueled its growth organically. No outside venture funds are involved.

Prent was founded in 1967 by Pregont's parents, Jack and Carol Pregont. "We added our first satellite facility 18 years ago in Flagstaff AZ to supply our expanding business in the western part of the United States," says Pregont. "With a lot of effort it was successful very early on. We took that concept around the world, often times being ready before the market developed, which helped expand our business into other demanding markets outside of medical customers."

Prent approaches the thermoforming business in an interesting way. First off, unlike many other large thermoformers in North America, it makes no proprietary products. "It's just not what we do," says Pregont.

Manufactures equipment

Also, Prent makes all of its own processing equipment and has for the last 20 years. "We felt that we would have to tell equipment manufacturers how we needed equipment to be built to meet our requirements. Then that information would become part of what the equipment manufacturers are offering to other customers."

Prent operates a Worldwide Machine Build Facility in Janesville where it designs and builds its own identical thermoformers and secondary operations equipment. "Identical" is a key word. Processes can easily be replicated at plants around the world.  Captive equipment manufacturing also provides the ability to react instantly to sudden changes or customer requests and provides a safety net against natural or man-made disasters at one manufacturing site.

Proprietary innovations

Pregont estimates that Prent could manufacture one machine a month if demand required. Prent also builds virtually all of its own tools. The company does not seek patents on equipment innovations to keep the developments secret. The number of machines operated by Prent globally is not disclosed. The company does disclose that it has the ability to form parts up to 62 inches long inline.

One of the company's design goals is to reduce weight of packages to reduce their environmental impact and to make them less costly. That's done through improved process machinery, tooling, design and materials.
Prent is actively developing custom material formulations with materials producers and a sister extrusion company, GOEX Corp., also of Janesville, to offer customers a cost-saving option.

Winning  design is helping Cook Urological cut tooling costs, package costs and assembly costs.

Common materials used for thermoformed medical packages include polyethylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyester, polycarbonate,polypropylene and other engineered polymers.

Developed compound

Prent introduced MEDEX 641 earlier this year as a less expensive alternative to the polyester family of materials.

 “We understand the medical device industry’s interest in reducing packaging costs while also reducing its environmental footprint,” says Pregont. "There is a limit to how thin deep-draw medical packages can become using existing materials,” explains Pregont. “We knew the success of such efforts would ultimately hinge on the development of new materials for medical packaging."

MEDEX is a clarified, sterilizable styrenic alloy designed specifically for the medical thermoformed package market. It is a co-extruded product, in which the surface contains mechanical attributes that allow for easy formed-part-separation.

Pregont says that Prent and GOEX are actively developing other thermoforming materials that will be offered to the market.  The primary target is new applications, since medical packaging must go through a regulatory review process.

Prent has won 13 WorldStar awards, including the only 2010 WorldStar awarded to a medical package from the World Packaging Organization.

Thin-wallling with new MEDEX compounds reduces costs.

The winning thermoformed design is helping Cook Urological, a leading global medical device manufacturer, significantly reduce packaging costs by cutting tooling costs, package costs and assembly costs. Prent’s universal thermoformed clamshell accommodates 35 different Nitinol Basket product line options, including two different handle configurations. The baskets are used for urinary tract stone manipulation and removal.

 Winning design

“Our design is helping Cook reduce its

 packaging costs three ways,” says Pregont. “First, the one-piece design is slashing tooling costs because it is thermoformed using just one tool —rather than separate tools for trays and retainers. Second, we cut the cost per package by more than 25% with the one-piece design. Third, less assembly time is now required since the one-piece clamshell can be loaded faster.”

The one piece design includes four undercut features inside the circular cavity that improve the ease and control of loading and unloading the delicate spiral medical devices. The undercuts also reduce product damage and prevent the medical device from popping out of the package or out of the operating room’s sterile field.

Thermoforming's future

The medical packaging market has shown about a 4% to 6% growth over the last several years. "We believe that thermoform packaging is capable of gaining market share due to the ability to make products today that were not possible 10 years ago," says Pregont.  "This is happening primarily because we have better design, better tool making and greatly improved process equipment."

Prent is an interesting model of how manufacturing can succeed in the United States.