Sil-Pro Expands Cleanroom and Molding Capabilities

Sil-Pro (Delano, MN) has added a 3500-sq-ft Class 10,000 cleanroom, which will incorporate new molding operations to serve the growing requirements of the medical device industry.

"Sil Pro's growth since its beginning in 1999 has been very rapid," remarks Brian Higgins, the company's VP of sales and marketing. "Our growth rate each of the last four years has averaged 27%. Our new cleanroom facilities are designed to accommodate this growth rate and more. Four new LIM presses will be added in the new space by year-end ranging from 40 to 90 tn. Additional equipment is also being installed to provide value-added operations such as slitting, bonding, and pad printing."

Another example of the company's growth is that its engineers and process planners recently designed and built a high-volume automated molding system for a customer requiring an output capacity of 2 million components a week. The components are for use in a disposable device used in insulin delivery systems.

With 115 employees, the ISO 9001:2000-certified manufacturer provides liquid silicone molding and gum stock molding. In addition, it bonds silicone parts to plastics, metal, and other silicone parts using medical-grade adhesives. Its services include medical device assembly and packaging.

"Sil-Pro's unique facilities and processes, together with our partner relationships with customers, drives this growth," Higgins says. "By teaming with customer design engineers during the product development process, we work through design iterations utilizing our CAD design capabilities and medical device experience. We refine the design and an appropriate manufacturing process that includes in-house mold design and build, highly automated manufacturing, assembly, and quality verification."