Matrix Tooling, Inc.

As an “Older Molder,” I recall the days of frugality when anything that could be cleaned and/or sterilized, from soda bottles to surgical implements, was re-used.  About the only “disposable” medical devices were bandages, Q-Tips and tongue depressors.  Of course, health & safety regulations have increased dramatically since then.  With infection control a top priority, and given the high cost of labor to disinfect and re-sterilize medical devices, many more are now designed for “single-use.”

Matrix Tooling, Inc. and Matrix Plastic Products has extensive processing experience with the broad range of materials, from commodity to engineering grades, which are used to produce medical disposables.

Commodity Resin Applications: Items previously made of glass and steel are now injection molded using inexpensive commodity resins such as polystyrene, polypropylene, and polyethylene.  Examples include Petri dishes, pipettes, test tubes, beakers, centrifuge containers, vials, thermometer probes, IV and other tubing connectors and, yes, the ubiquitous bed pans and tongue depressors.  Although they are produced from relatively low-cost resins, they are produced in huge volumes.  Designing them to be as thin-walled as possible allows for shorter cycle times and ultimately lower overall costs.

Matrix produces a variety of thin-walled devices, such as sharps containers,
syringes and mouth guards, from commodity resins.

The equipment used to produce these parts is much like that used to mold thin-walled packaging: presses (hydraulic or electric) with thick robust platens, rapid injection rates, high available injection pressures, and precise controls. Toggle machines are favored for deep drawn parts due to higher available clamp opening pressure. High water flow is required, especially when using polyolefin resins. Large horsepower water temperature control pumps and large coolant lines, both to and in the molds, are required. Turbulent coolant flow is essential to the quality, as well as the economical production, of these parts.

Engineering Resin Applications: While commodity resins often make up the largest volume of a medical molder’s physical output, engineering resins can easily make up a majority of the molder’s product value output.

Various factors including strength, temperature, chemical resistance and initial sterilization requirements determine the need to use an engineering grade. For example, devices requiring intense initial sterilization (via such methods as autoclave, chemical, Ethylene Oxide (ETO or EO), and gamma ray or electron beam radiation) require a specialty grade resin that can withstand the sterilization process.

Engineering materials such as PEEK , Polycarbonate, Nylon, PEI, and LCP - in both filled and non-filled varieties - can be quite expensive. Matrix works hard to mitigate these costs by consistently maintaining a scrap rate well below 1% through efficient mold design and, of course, efficient processing.

This multi-component surgical device, tooled & molded by Matrix, features GF nylon and PC.

Matrix has produced a variety of surgical stapler cartridges using LCP.

Brent Borgerson
Senior Process Engineer (Older Molder)
Matrix Tooling Inc. /Matrix Plastic Products