Archive for the ‘Medical’ Category

Here’s a list of some of our favorite blogs, forums and Twitter pages that you may find interesting as well.   Make sure to let us know if we missed any of your favorites!

• IndustryWeek forums and blogs – several great manufacturing-related sources here, including The Manufacturing Life, by Chief Editor Steve Minter
• The Engineering Exchange – “developed by engineers for engineers”
• Engineering Materials – by Design News’ Doug Smock.  Check out his recent entry on a new grade of DuPont Zytel  that could be used  for vehicle exhaust systems!
• Design World Senior Editor Laura Carrabine’s Twitter page – for breaking news and commentary on materials
• Plastics, Composites and Coatings Community – a service of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), which also publishesManufacturing Engineering
• Automotive DesignLine Engineering Blog – by Editor George Leopold, focused on electronics, but also a good source of news on the industry.  This site also has a very active forum

- Ben

Look for Kaysun at the “Medical Device Collaborative Gathering” on March 5th in Green Bay, which is being organized by WiSys, the University of Wisconsin’s technology transfer program.  UW has an active entrepreneurial support program for its faculty, staff and students, and the Green Bay area is home to an emerging community of medical device manufacturers, led by companies such as Surgical Site Solutions.

The Medical Device Collaborative Gathering is designed to bring together researchers, clinicians, manufacturers and entrepreneurs interested in developing and commercializing medical technologies and exploring potential collaborations.  Kaysun’s Jeff Anderson will be participating in a panel discussion on “Best Practices to Identify Opportunities and Obtain Resources to Move an Idea Forward.”

Jeff will report on the event in a future blog post.

- Ben

We’ve all been asked to please turn off our electronic devices, if not during a flight then in a medical setting:  Interference in those situations can mean life or death.

As technologies converge and devices become more compact and powerful, the space around us is now a cat’s cradle of electromagnetic waves that can wreak havoc with each other in the form of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) – and even impact us closer to home.  Check out this NY Times article and video showing how calling a man’s cell phone turned on his gas oven.

At Kaysun, we’re finding that EMI and RFI solutions are required for every market we serve, including defense, medical, automotive and industrial, and that the ultimate goal is always the same:  protect the sensitive internal parts of precisely engineered devices from receiving those conflicting waves.

It has also enabled us to build a wealth of expertise in this area — whether it’s applying secondary shielding materials to plastic components or using highly engineered resins with inherent shielding properties – that we can apply to your particular EMI and RFI needs.

Contact us to learn more.

- Ben

Just read a great article in Medical Product Outsourcing magazine entitled, “Decision Time,” about the complicated thought processes behind the decision to form outsourcing partnerships.

This story featured several quotes from Barry K. Lynn, director of global sourcing at Smiths Medical – a Kaysun partner since 2006.  Lynn explained that one of the most important factors for Smiths when evaluating potential partners is “cultural fit,” and that his company even gives candidates “an opportunity to decide for themselves whether they want to forge a relationship with Smiths Medical.”

An interesting approach.

Kaysun has been on the other end of these kinds of evaluations for more than 60 years, and I can tell you that everyone asks about technical capabilities, quality statistics and financial strength.  But Smiths has it right.  The best partnerships are based on shared values — just like every other important relationship in life.

Click here to read the whole article – the section on Smiths Medical is near the end.

- Ben

Design News, one of the leading publications for design engineers, just published a profile of Kaysun Corporation entitled, “Emphasis on Design Engineering Pays off for Injection Molder.”

Click here to read the complete article.

- Ben

Check out the great article on the Injection Molding magazine site on the pressure many US companies are feeling to develop plans for outsourcing some part of their manufacturing to China — and the pitfalls of doing so.  Author Clare Goldsberry raised a number of good points, including the challenges posed by intellectual property theft and the lack of a stringent regulatory environment.

Before joining Kaysun, I worked in China for a US firm that managed outsourced manufacturing operations.  Based on that experience, it’s clear that OEMs should consider a few other factors as well:

• Total cost – most firms outsource to China to lower their labor costs, but too many fail to fully consider the costs of exchange rate fluctuations, transportation and quality assurance.  QA, for example, will require putting company employees on the ground in China – hiring locally, relocating US-based resources or hiring a third-party firm to fill this critical need.  Once you open the container and find errors, it will take at least 60 days to get replacements – 30 days in production and 30 days “on the water.”
• Reputation risk – this is an intangible but very real risk associated with inconsistent or poor quality.  We’ve all read or heard the news stories about tainted Chinese products hitting US markets.  It’s one thing to recall costume jewelry.  Quite another if it’s a medical device.
• Geopolitical risk – this is related to total cost, but if a worsening political climate leads to back-and-forth market sanctions, a 30% tariff on goods imported from China would wipe out any potential labor cost savings.

Bottom line – China is an attractive and viable outsourcing destination for certain promotional products and low-tech consumer goods.  But I believe the precision plastic components and assemblies required for today’s automotive and medical device markets are better sourced from leading-edge US partners like Kaysun.

- Jeff Anderson

Have you noticed more and more products are using plastics today to make them “tougher” and more durable?  Had an interesting conversation the other day with Mark Gilbertson of the industrial design firm InForm Product Development, a Kaysun partner, about the “ruggedization” trend – and wanted to share a few thoughts here.

Ruggedization is happening in virtually every market we serve.  In the medical market, the growing importance of home-care based solutions means devices need to stand up to travel and deliver portability.  In defense, the obvious drivers include demand for product designs that can endure significant impact and duress in a wide variety of weather conditions.

Two of the many drivers of this trend include:

• the economic downturn creating a “back-to-basics” movement stressing the importance of value and endurance, and
• the growing mobility of our society – increasing demand for personal electronics like laptops and cell phones that are smaller and lighter, yet capable of being dropped and “banged around.”

There’s more to cover on this topic, such as the role of plastics in ruggedization and the types of plastics best-suited to particular applications – that we’ll pick up in future blogs.

- Ben