Omega Plastics installs Fanuc machine to serve diverse, growing medical market

While Brexit continues to befuddle UK legislators—a recently leaked government memo suggests that Britain has no coherent strategy for leaving the European Union—and worry the business community, the medical technology industry remains robust, and suppliers are reaping the rewards. That is the case of Omega Plastics (Blyth, UK), which has invested more than £200,000 ($248,500) in new technology at its plant in Teesside, UK.

Part of the Omega Plastics Group, which operates three sites across the northeast of England, Omega Plastics manufactures specialized medical equipment.

Omega Plastics has installed a Fanuc Roboshot electric injection molding machine to increase productivity and improve energy efficiency at its plant in Hartlepool.

“The diversity and growth in the medical devices industry make this a fundamentally important market for our business. This is just the latest in a line of investments we have made in our people and the technologies they work with to ensure we consistently deliver the highest quality products and services to our customers,” said Gary Powner, Managing Director of Omega Plastics.

Earlier this year in March, as reported in PlasticsToday, Omega Plastics listed its priorities for 2016, which included “further investment in people, plant and machinery as we work to establish Omega Plastics as a serious UK contender in the prototype development, production tooling and injection molding industry.” The company has not reneged on that promise.

A supplier to the automotive industry—it recently opened a 42,000-square-foot plant in Washington, UK, to serve carmakers—Omega Plastics has steadily built its medical business since launching Omega Plastics Medical in 2009. Acknowledging the strict regulatory requirements of the sector, “especially in the supply of products and materials that are intended to come into direct contact with humans,” Powner notes that “Fanuc’s purpose-built machines enable us to create exactly the right conditions for manufacturing these highly sensitive products.”