Matrix Plastic Products Inc. (formerly known as Matrix Tooling Inc. & Matrix Plastic Products), is celebrating “40 successful years in business” with a new corporate name and website. Matrix Plastic Products (Wood Dale, IL) is a plastic injection molder of critical components that also designs and builds the ultra-precise molds required to produce components for the medical device industry and other high-performance applications.

Founded in 1978 by brothers Paul and James Ziegenhorn and their father, William, Matrix Tooling Inc. began with seven employees, “a rich family tradition of moldmaking craftsmanship, and an unwavering focus on customer service,” said Matrix’s news release. In 2000, Matrix secured the trade name Matrix Plastic Products and built a 10,000-square-foot addition dedicated to molding production. An ISO Class 8 cleanroom was installed in 2006 to accommodate the company’s growing emphasis on medical business. ISO 13485 certification followed in 2010.

Four decades and three buildings later, Matrix has evolved from strictly a mold design and fabrication shop into a premier plastics manufacturing facility that incorporates moldmaking with injection molding and other value-added services to produce critical components and sub-assemblies for the medical device industry.

“Over the years, as our customers’ demands grew, we responded by broadening our value-added service offerings,” said Paul Ziegenhorn, President. “In 1995, we put our first molding press on the floor so we could perform our own mold samplings and run small volumes for our customers. We also expanded our inspection capabilities by adding a quality assurance lab and certified our quality systems to ISO 9001 by 1999, one of the first mold shops to do so. At that time, molding production made up a very small portion of our sales, but the momentum had already begun.”

Today, Matrix Plastic Products operates 15 presses ranging from 5 to 300 tons, and has added assembly and 3D prototyping to further extend its full-service menu. The QA lab has also grown and features four OGP multi-sensor metrology systems to support myriad advanced inspection protocols. A CT scanner is on the soon-to-come list.

“This company has never shied away from technology,” said Gary Johansson, VP of Quality/Regulatory. “We understand that we need to have better equipment than the competition to keep the high-level work coming here.”

Given the evolution of the company, the decision to move forward with the single corporate identity Matrix Plastic Products is both practical and tactical. “It is the more inclusive name and better represents our broader mix of services today,” said Andy Ziegenhorn, COO. “But we are still moldmakers by trade, so ensuring the integrity of the tools we run in production will always be hard-wired into the way we operate here.”