…WITH HYBRID MOULDING MACHINE

In the next five years the global respiratory care devices market is expected to grow at a rate of 9.65% due to increasing pressures on respiratory health care and aging populations. As a specialist medical device manufacturer, Armstrong Medical is in a prime position to take advantage of future opportunities, having recently added to its injection moulding machine portfolio.

Faced with a need to increase production after negotiating a new contract to supply a carbon dioxide absorbent for use in anesthesia and manufactured using a brand new suite of mould tools, the Northern Ireland moulder spoke to longstanding partner Sumitomo (SHI) Demag about acquiring an additional machine. By September, the new hybrid Systec Servo 160 was in position and helping to meet the demands of Armstrong Medical’s new customer.

This business growth scenario is a far cry from just over a decade ago; in 2007 a fire engulfed the company’s premises. Armstrong Medical rapidly reconstructed the production facility it had built up since 2003, ordering replacement injection moulding machines from Sumitomo (SHI) Demag. Just two years later the firm received The Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade.

“All of the assembly and manufacturing areas were destroyed, but we managed to keep a warehouse that had only been handed over the previous week,”recalls Nigel Simpson, plastics project manager at Armstrong Medical. “That was a turning point for us because we were able to rebuild the way we wanted to and set the operation up to suit our needs.”