Westfall Technik donating masks, straps during the COVID-19 crisis
Las Vegas-based Westfall is making reusable masks and mask straps.
Westfall Technik Inc. (Westfall) is producing medical masks and mask straps and donating them to the health care industry during the COVID-19 crisis.
Las Vegas-based Westfall is making reusable masks at its Wakefield, Michigan site.
“Westfall’s operational model delivers an integrated solution with in-house design, prototyping, tooling, molding, assembly and logistics,” states Allison Lin, Procurement and Sustainability Vice President. The mask project went from idea to molded parts in roughly two weeks. Westfall now can mold more than 4000 masks per day.
Westfall also is making reusable mask straps. The straps help health care professionals or others wearing masks for extended periods of time to avoid ear pain from the pressure that elastic straps put on their ears.
As medical devices get smaller, manufacturers require innovative, more reliable ways to produce small and micro-sized plastic components. Conventional approaches are costly, inefficient, and often unable to deliver the required precision and speed. A new micro-injection molding technology called Isokor improves speed and precision by eliminating molding inefficiencies.
Westfall Technik® (Westfall) is launching a comprehensive branding initiative which will roll out a new corporate website, enterprise-wide signage program and integrated communications materials targeted to the healthcare, consumer packaged goods and light industrial markets. Since 2017, Westfall has experienced accelerated growth, expanding to 18 global locations and 1500+ associates serving thousands of customers.
“The goals were clear, but the challenge was evident. We had to take a customer first position and that becomes challenging anytime you rapidly grow as we have and need to integrate under a singular vision while maintaining everything that is great about the people and organizations that are now part of Westfall”, said Merritt Williams, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. “There are some special people and bring tremendous capabilities to the offering and culture we are building. More importantly, we need to be clear in our message to the market and our customers and what value Westfall brings to them and make it easy to do business with and easy to connect with. I believe we have made a significant step forward on delivering on that promise.”
This week on What Keeps You Up At Night, Plastics News Publisher Brennan Lafferty talks with Stephanie Baldi, vice president of human resources at Westfall Technik, who discusses women and talent in the plastics industry.
HUNTINGDON, England and LAS VEGAS, April 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Bockatech, developer of EcoCore® foamtech for lightweight and reusable packaging, and Westfall Technik Inc®., a global holding company that provides innovative plastics manufacturing solutions to the healthcare, packaging and consumer goods industries, have announced a new agreement.
EcoCore foamtech to key prospects in the United States, with options to extend the partnership to toolmaking and mass production for the nominated applications.” data-reactid=”14″>The new deal will see Westfall promoting Bockatech’s EcoCore foamtech to key prospects in the United States, with options to extend the partnership to toolmaking and mass production for the nominated applications.
Jim Berklas, Chief Growth Officer at Westfall, said: “EcoCore is a very versatile technology with many high value applications in food service, food retail, industrial chemicals and healthcare.
“We work with some of the best-known brands in the world and are always on the lookout for new technologies that will give them a significant competitive advantage.
“The ability of EcoCore to create thermal barriers to protect consumers from hot as well as cold food, lightweight single use packaging and create more sustainable low-cost reusables, gives brands the opportunity to stand out from the crowd.”
EcoCore creates packaging with skin-foam-skin walls instantly — increasing strength, reducing material use, cutting cycle times and boosting thermal protection.” data-reactid=”18″>Optimized for use with Borealis polypropylene, Bockatech EcoCore creates packaging with skin-foam-skin walls instantly — increasing strength, reducing material use, cutting cycle times and boosting thermal protection.
The platform technology has a wide variety of packaging applications including food service (e.g. to-go cups), food retail (e.g. microwave meals and noodle pots), healthcare (e.g. medicine and sharps containers) and industrial (e.g. pails, tubs and paint containers).
Speaking about EcoCore and its ability to help brands address both the sustainability demands of consumers as well as governments, Chris Bocking, CEO at Bockatech, said: “With growing consumer concern and legislation about sustainability, technologies that help brands tackle the issue and comply with laws across all territories are essential.
“EcoCore is helping brands transition to lightweight single use packaging that can be recycled. And, explore new opportunities for low cost reusables.
“This has the potential to cut the amount of packaging made and create a step change reduction in key environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas production and ocean pollution.”
EcoCore is a platform technology with many high value applications in food service, food retail, industrial chemicals and healthcare.
EcoCore uses polypropylene and creates skin-foam-skin walls instantly — cutting cycle times, increasing strength, reducing material and boosting thermal protection.
EcoCore mouldings are very durable, can feature in-mould labels for impactful branding and may be washed hundreds of times to enable reuse.
Westfall Technik is a global holding company which provides highly-productive plastics manufacturing solutions to the healthcare, consumer packaging and consumer goods and light industrial industries.
Westfall Technik’s competitive advantages include modern automated systems, correlative molding processes, and effective industry 4.0 concepts.
Brand owners can expect high quality products at an excellent value, a fast response for decreased time-to-market, 100% inspection and traceability from pellet to pallet, supply chain security compliance, and reliability from a trustworthy team.
Bockatech provides innovative plastic production technology under licence to help converters and brands improve the products and packaging they make and provide for consumers.
EcoCore is a new foaming technology for polypropylene plastics that creates insulated, lightweight and durable packaging that is reusable and recyclable to improve sustainability.
The innovative foamtech produces skin-foam-skin walls in an instant. Cycle times for mouldings using EcoCore are the same as those made from solid plastic — up to 80% less than other foam core products.
EcoCore mouldings also have a very high strength to weight ratio. Packaging produced with EcoCore is up to 5X stiffer than solid mouldings of the same weight. Or, the amount of plastic required can be reduced by up to 70%.
The skin-foam-skin walls also provide thermal insulation, offering up to 1.2X more protection than similar solid wall mouldings.
The technology uses tried and trusted polypropylene plastics as well as injection moulding processes — making safe, reliable mouldings with the minimum of investment in new equipment.
EcoCore is creating innovative products and packaging with a competitive edge for converters and brands across all major sectors, including food service, food retail, industrial chemicals and healthcare.
LAS VEGAS, NV – May 10, 2019 – Westfall Technik, Inc. (“Westfall”, the “Company”), a global holding company that provides highly productive plastics manufacturing solutions to the medical, packaging and consumer goods industries, announced today the acquisition of Delta Pacific Products (“Delta”) and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Prism Plastics Products (“Prism”) and NxTBio Technologies (“NxTBio”), each of which operate on a standalone basis.
“We chose to join Westfall Technik because we knew Westfall would expand the services and production capacity we offer to the medical device community in the Bay area and greater Minneapolis. We can now offer our customers high volume production, device assembly and rapid precision toolmaking throughout the United States and, through Westfall’s extensive sales team, can offer our services to customers we could never previously reach.” – Yuan Tian, Delta’s President and CEO.
Delta is one of the leading injection molders in the San Francisco Bay Area serving the large and growing medical device startup community in that region. The engineers and operators at Delta specialize in working with medtech R&D professionals from the prototyping phase through FDA approval and full production. Delta’s core competency in tooling design greatly reduces lead times and increases speed to FDA approval and the eventual commercialization of customers’ products. Their focus on high quality products, quick turnaround times, and experienced staff makes Delta an ideal choice to serve both startups and global medical device OEMs. Given Delta’s success, Westfall is planning to expand their current footprint to allow the business to scale alongside its customers. The acquisition of Delta marks a significant and important investment in the medical / healthcare space for Westfall.
Prism also marks a strategically important investment for Westfall as the Company looks to expand its presence in certain regions of the country. In this case, Prism’s location outside Minneapolis provides additional capacity and capabilities for Westfall to offer customers located in the Midwest. On a combined basis, the additions of Prism and Delta add over 50,000 square feet of additional production space to Westfall’s capacity before the planned expansion at Delta mentioned above.
Westfall also acquired NxTBio Technologies, a developer, marketer, and distributor of branded bioscience laboratory consumables including pipette tips, filter tips, tubes and strip tubes, vials, multi-well plates, and related racking systems. Westfall’s ability to engineer and build high volume production systems will accelerate the growth of NxTBio’s leading-edge product portfolio.
About Delta Pacific Products
Over the past 30+ years, Delta Pacific Products has developed and maintained a solid reputation for building partnerships and producing quality plastic products for the life science and medical device industries. With our focus on high quality products, quick turnaround times and our experienced & dedicated staff, we serve both startups and global medical device OEM’s. We work in close collaboration with our customers to ensure successful project outcomes and provide a full range of manufacturing services for medical device companies bringing new products to market.
About Westfall Technik, Inc.
Westfall Technik is a global holding company which provides highly-productive plastics manufacturing solutions to the medical, consumer packaging and consumer goods industries. Westfall Technik’s competitive advantages include modern automated systems, correlative molding processes, and effective industry 4.0 concepts. Brand owners can expect high quality products at an excellent value, a fast response for decreased time-to-market, 100% inspection and traceability from pellet to pallet, supply chain security compliance, and reliability from a trustworthy team. For more information, visit https://www.westfall-technik.com/.
Micro-Molding, Expanded Cleanroom, New Technologies and Continued High-Tech Processing are in the Future for MicroTech Southwest. Site to become a Westfall Technik “Center of Excellence.”
Tempe, Arizona – March 20th, 2019 – MicroTech Southwest Inc. (“MTSW”, or “MicroTech”) is the latest in a string of acquisitions made by Westfall Technik Inc. MTSW focuses exclusively on the medical and consumer products spaces, serving only blue-chip OEMs in those industries. Steve Kraxberger, CEO and founder of MTSW, started the company on the simple premise of providing innovative solutions and excellent service at a fair price. According to Steve, “When the time came to sell, I wanted to find a buyer who would continue MTSW’s strong tradition of customer service. I am sure that Westfall Technik is the right group to do this.”
MTSW grew dramatically with the addition of industry veteran Brett Black in 2014. The company increased their high-volume technical parts production through innovative manufacturing concepts. “We found new ways to increase output and ensure quality at a fair price which allowed us to become a leader in high-tech parts”, said Brett.
The MicroTech management team will be staying on but Steve Kraxberger will be retiring after a transition period. “It is important that our associates know that their future is secure and that the modernization plans will offer them new opportunities to grow”, according to both Westfall and MicroTech management.
Westfall Technik Expansion Plans
MicroTech currently operates 24 machines from 28 to 350 tons primarily in the medical and consumer product space. The facility is ISO 9001 and 13485 certified but does not currently have clean room production. “That is going to change quickly” according to Rick Shaffer, Managing Director for the Western Region. Modernization plans include an ISO 8 cleanroom, industry 4.0 material handling, infrastructure modernization and productivity improvements. The 58,000 square foot site will also become the center of excellence for Westfall Technik in the Western region.
About Westfall Technik
Westfall Technik, a newly formed global holding company which provides highly productive plastics manufacturing solutions to serve the medical, packaging and consumer goods industries. Westfall Technik’s competitive advantage is its modern technology applied to automated systems and correlative molding processes and effective industry 4.0 concepts. Westfall Technik brings the most advanced technology and processes through collaboration and flawlessly executes the solutions in well-established world-class facilities. The result is a reliable solution with an excellent value from a team you can trust. Westfall Technik’s approach meets brand owners demand in areas such as: high quality and value, fast response for shorter time to market, 100% inspection and traceability from pellet to pallet and beyond, and supply chain security compliance.
Extreme Tool & Engineering, Inc. (“Extreme”) has been acquired by Westfall Technik, Inc. (“Westfall”), a global holding company that provides highly productive plastics manufacturing solutions to the medical, packaging and consumer goods industries. Westfall is particularly excited to partner with Mike Zacharias, President of Extreme, and his team to continue their tradition of excellence that Extreme’s customers have come to expect.
Extreme has developed an impressive reputation for delivering clients solutions to complex challenges in engineering, mold manufacturing, injection molding and automation. Extreme’s core competency in delivering ultra-high tolerance molds for complex medical device and packaging / dispensing applications adds another important dimension to Westfall’s current capabilities. “Extreme, in combination with our prototyping businesses and molding operations, allows us to offer our customers the ability to design, engineer, and manufacture their most complex medical devices.” said Jim Berklas, Head of M&A for Westfall. “We continue to be on the lookout for injection molding businesses with strategically important characteristics such as Extreme,” added Berklas.
About Extreme Tool & Engineering
Extreme Tool & Engineering is an ISO 9001:2015 certified premier injection molding and tool building facility located in Wakefield, Michigan. With skilled employees and a strong engineering focus, Extreme is a leading provider of innovative turnkey plastic product development services. Our team prides ourselves on delivering results, not excuses.
About Westfall Technik
Westfall Technik is a new global holding company which provides highly-productive plastics manufacturing solutions to medical, consumer packaging and consumer goods industries. Westfall Technik’s competitive advantages include modern automated systems, correlative molding processes, and effective industry 4.0 concepts. The results for brand owners include high quality, excellent value, fast response for shorter time-to-market, 100% inspection and traceability from pellet to pallet and beyond, supply chain security compliance, and reliability from a team you can trust.
Over one million coffee cups end up in UK landfill every minute. Paper cups need a wax or plastic lining to hold liquids, yet this combination of materials prevents cups being recycled alongside other paper products.
Amaray, in conjunction with Bockatech have created The CORRETTO a sustainable alternative which satisfies consumer and environmental demands. CORRETTO cups create less CO2 during their lifecycle than any alternative and 96% less than normal paper cups. Made from polypropylene, the cup is durable, making it perfect for multiple use and deposit return schemes. It is easily recycled in plastic recycling bins or council collection schemes and therefore supports a circular plastics economy. Due to its ease of reusability, it will undoubtedly reduce the overall cost in the current supply chain and won’t “cost the earth”, unlike single-use paper cups.
In addition to being the most cost-effective way to eliminate single-use paper cups going to landfill, the CORRETTO features EcoCore foamcore walls which retain heat internally and prevent scalding externally. This removes the need for additional heat preventing cardboard barrier sleeves.
The CORRETTO is a high-quality reusable product that surpasses the sustainability performance of its competitors, whilst matching the cost. It can eliminate the loss of valuable resources, reduce emissions, remove landfill, whilst creating real £’s value in the waste stream.
The prestigious award for Plastics Design and Innovation was presented by Philip Law, Director General of the BPF (left), to Amaray CEO Jamie Tinsley at the Annual BPF Gala last night.
Mold Craft has done a lot to become an innovation leader in the mold making industry.
Micro Mold Innovation
Mold Craft specializes in making precision micro molds. In recent years, Mold Craft determined there was a gap and a need to have a specialized area to test micro molds.
In the big picture of molding, micro molding is relatively new and typically for very specialized applications. Not only are the molds different but many times the presses, like the Battenfeld MicroPower15t, have unique features.
For example, the nozzle on the Battenfeld press reaches all the way to parting line. When customers build micro molds specific to a project, it is very common that they will not have a readily-available press to test their brand new micro mold. Mold Craft’s goal was to develop a facility that would closely mimic that of our customers and be separate from the mold making facility.
With that vision and perfect timing of space availability the Tech Center is born. On the outside it looks like a standard brick building, but once one walks inside the truth is revealed.
The Mold Craft Tech Center
Mold Craft’s Tech Center is home to a variety of presses, press connections, conference & meeting area, a class 100,000 clean room and a 3D digital ABS printer. The Tech Center is run by Derrick Jahr who will soon be joined by another UW-Stout graduate, Hunter Bartz. Derrick graduated from UW-Stout about 4 years ago with both Manufacturing & Plastics Engineering majors. While taking on the role of a process engineer, Derrick balances his time as a mold designer. VP of Engineering, Justin McPhee, explained, “We are utilizing Derrick’s skills and knowledge in mold design and developing a processing protocol that will take us to the next level in micro mold process development.”
Recently, Mold Craft has added a conference table, big screen wall monitor, computer, etc. to allow additional space for collaboration on the Mold Craft campus.
While the employee’s at Mold Craft certainly do love the Tech Center, it is Mold Craft’s customers who are the true beneficiaries of this innovation workshop.
Because micro molding is unique, especially Battenfeld micro molding, Mold Craft has a press dedicated to sampling customer molds built specifically around the Battenfeld platform. The Battenfeld Press has a rotary platen that is used to improve cycle time by ejecting the parts in concert with the SCARA
(Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm) robot and integrated end of arm tooling (EOAT). The Tech Center also allows Mold Craft to create Production Quality Prototypes in order to fine tune each customer’s part design to perfection. Without the Tech Center, none of this would be possible. Justin McPhee said, “The main facility at Mold Craft is dedicated to building molds and does not have additional room available to add a molding machine without sacrificing the capacity and redundancy we carry with the mold making machine tools.”
Tech Center Turn-Key Solutions
The Tech Center also gives Mold Craft the opportunity to create Turn-Key solutions for its customers. A Turn Key Solution is when a customer buys a press, sends it to Mold Craft, and allows Mold Craft to create a mold that fits and operates perfectly in the customer’s press.
Mold Craft then ships the entire press and mold simultaneously so that when it shows up at the customer’s facility, all they have to do is “plug it in”.
Justin continues, “With the additional space at the Tech Center and only one Battenfeld press at this time, we have real estate that would allow a customer to put a press on our floor where we are able to sample the mold we are building and deliver a turn-key system with a robust process that would allow the customer to begin molding parts immediately once it gets to their facility.”
The Tech Center offers a lot to Mold Craft’s customers. Mold Craft is known for creating high quality micro molds with extremely tight tolerances. Mold Craft understands the impact that their molds have on their customers. Derrick Jahr said, “Our customer’s molds are extremely important to them, essential to production lines. Should there be any mold development required, The Tech Center allows us to test and tweak their molds to perfection prior to shipping which drastically reduces the amount of time required for final validation, ultimately resulting in a lower overall cost of ownership.”
Mold Craft is an innovative company that specializes in micro molding. With the use of the Tech Center, Mold Craft is delivering high quality micro mold solutions to its customers. We look forward to the next opportunity to build an awesome micro mold!
