The COVID-19 pandemic has put unprecedented strain on manufacturers of medical devices and pharmaceuticals to deliver life-saving products. Automation will play a key role in fighting the disease.
If the adhesives world had a track team, cyanoacrylate would be Usain Bolt, the three-time Olympic sprinting champion. That's because it is a versatile, super-fast material that cures much quicker than other types of adhesive.
Adhesive bonding and ultrasonic welding are widely used for assembling thermoplastic medical devices. Which to choose depends on a number of considerations.
One hardly needs sophisticated market research to conclude that the global market for medical devices will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. One need only open a newspaper to read the latest data on the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May, the European Union’s sweeping new Medical Device Regulation (MDR) will take effect. (The law had been scheduled to go into effect last May, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Recently, a large medical device OEM contracted with NuTec Tooling Systems, a machine builder in Meadville, PA, to design and build a system to automate the process of coating plastic syringes for medical diagnostics, including a COVID-19 application.
FRANKLIN LAKES, NJ—Becton, Dickinson and Co. plans to invest approximately $1.2 billion over a four-year period to expand and upgrade manufacturing capacity and technology for pre-fillable syringes and advanced drug delivery systems across its six global manufacturing locations and add a new manufacturing facility in Europe.
BOXBOROUGH, MA—German contract manufacturer Vibalogics GmbH is investing $150 million and hiring 100 people for a facility here to help Big Pharma develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The company plans to open the site by the second half of 2021.