Bal Seal Engineering has opened a 15,000-sq-ft facility to serve its medical product manufacturing customers. The new facility is located in Colorado Springs, CO. Bal Seal plans to move the new operation to a permanent 50,000-sq-ft facility in Colorado Springs in 2008.

According the the company, opening the new facility will enable the company to mitigate customers' concerns over supply-chain risk.

The leased Colorado Springs facility is located in the Garden Tech Industrial Center. It will initially employ 20 Swiss turning machinists engaged in the production of precision components for implantable medical electronics devices. The company plans to expand its workforce to more than 100 employees as additional operations are activated in the facility.

“The medical segment shows no signs of slowing down,” says Jacques Naviaux, Bal Seal's vice chairman. “In fact, the opposite is true—the segment is booming. We are seeing growth rates in implanted medical electronics devices of 20% per year.”

Naviaux spent several months scouting locations in the western United States before choosing Colorado Springs.

“Colorado Springs best matched our business needs and has the highly educated workforce that we require,” he says. “Bal Seal plans to grow with the Colorado Springs facility for many years.”

The new facility will manufacture components for Bal Seal Medical Products Group customers including St. Jude, Medtronic, and Boston Scientific. Bal Seal manufactures canted coils springs for medical electronics. It products are used for applications that include sealing, electrical transfer and grounding, EMI shielding, and mechanical holding, latching, and loading.

“Medical-related technology is a highly desirable industry to have in any community. Bal Seal Engineering's arrival will boost this important and expanding sector of our local economy,” says Mike Kazmierski, president and CEO of the Greater Colorado Springs Economic Development Council.

The company also has a manufacturing facility in Foothill Ranch, CA, where it is headquartered. It has a European office in Amsterdam.