Raumedic prepares to inaugurate its first U.S. molding, extrusion and assembly plant

Raumedic (Helmbrechts, Germany) started production at its new North American headquarters in Mills River, NC, in January 2016 with 56 employees, and the company is now looking forward to the facility's official inauguration on April 22, 2016. It’s the company’s first full-scale polymer extrusion, injection molding and assembly plant for medical device and pharmaceutical OEMs outside Germany.

The 60,000-square-foot, two-story building serves as a production and development center for customer-specific polymer components and systems and includes a 13,000-square-foot ISO Class 7 cleanroom. The order books have filled up nicely, said Raumedic, and the company anticipates hiring additional personnel in the coming months.

High-quality polymer products will be developed, produced and packaged to customer specifications at both locations. “We will now offer our customers the same quality and service they have come to expect from us as a development partner and system supplier at the Mills River location,” said CEO Martin Bayer. Previously, medical products were manufactured in Germany and sold in the United States by Raumedic Inc. “With our new development and production center, we are able to combine the strengths of both German and American engineering,” said Rudi Gall, Managing Director. “The advantages are obvious: Short routes and a more comprehensive as well as timely service for our North American customers.”

The company’s expertise extends to multi-component injection molding with hard-hard and hard-soft combinations, micro-injection molding, insert molding, fully automated assembly, micro extrusion, multi-layer extrusion and film blowing. These technologies will be introduced gradually at the Mills River plant.

Raumedic processes all current medical-grade thermoplastics, silicones and high-temperature polymers such as PEEK, FEP or PTFE. The company performs its own compounding for custom material formulas.

Raumedic has spent approximately $11 million on the construction of the new building, and a total of $27 million will be invested in the Mills River plant by 2022, according to the company.