Placon, a US-based custom and stock plastic packaging manufacturer, has announced the addition of an ISO Class 8 cleanroom at its manufacturing site in Elkhart, Indiana. The investment, the company said, is to increase capacity for its medical products.
Headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, Placon serves the medical, food and retail markets. The company has manufacturing operations in Madison; Elkhart, Indiana; Plymouth, Minnesota; and West Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Elkhart facility is ISO13485-certified and dedicated to producing plastic packaging for the medical and healthcare industries.
Placon said the new cleanroom will double thermoforming capacity at the Elkhart facility. The production space has been designed to hold three additional thermoforming presses.
The first new press being installed is expected to be operational by the end of November this year. Plans are already in development for the addition of the second press.
John MacDougall, Medical Sales Manager at Placon, commented: “The expansion of this cleanroom will allow us to provide better customer service to our partner accounts, get their products to market faster, and supports our corporate strategy for growth in the medical packaging market."
Placon manufactures custom thermoformed trays, clamshells and their BargerGard, a protective packaging made from TPU material.
Growth strategy
Plasco has been targeting growth in the medical and healthcare market. The strategy started in 2011 with the acquisition of Barger, an Elkhart-based manufacturer of sterile and non-sterile packaging solutions for medical and pharmaceutical markets in the United States and internationally.
It then acquired Brookdale Plastics in 2016, a privately held custom thermoformer based in Plymouth, Minnesota. Founded in 1963, Brookdale’s 74,000sqft of space houses state-of-the-art 3D printers, in-house tooling department, and Class 100,000 cleanroom.
“Our goal is to be the first supplier of choice for custom packaging solutions in the industry. Adding this new technology will give Placon increased manufacturing flexibility and speed to market which will deliver more value to our customers and position us well into the future,” said Dan Mohs, Chairman and CEO.
