Pentagon Plastics has provided a high number of medical products to the market since the 1970’s and over the past 40 years, have built up extensive experience in medical moulding.
In the early days, not long after the company was born, they took over the moulding for a reputable medical company based in Ireland that supplied face masks, catheter tips, Tiemann tips and bespoke respiratory products. These products were moulded in various grades of PVC and K-Resin Styrene-Butadiene-Copolymers (SBC).
The industry has changed drastically and today, the main focus of Pentagon’s medical moulding sees them supply to a variety of customers in the Stoma Care sector. The team have assisted the development and continue to supply volume production of urostomy, colostomy, ileostomy and wound care products which include full coupling and drainable systems. The extensive process of creating these types of products has provided the team with a vast knowledge in moulding ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA), polyethylenes, acetals and thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) – raising them to industry expert status.
As a technical moulder of bespoke customer products, they have also manufactured a huge number of cases and covers for medical devices. These are quite often moulded in ABS or polycarbonate and sometimes even a mixture of both.
Pentagon work on every stage of a project and are involved very early on in the concept stage; assisting throughout the complete development of a medical product. By working closely with the customers designers, this helps to ensure that a product or concept is totally compatible with the moulding process and can be manufactured to meet costing guidelines. They are able to support customers by utilising their experience and knowledge of the medical industry and assisting them from concept, throughout all stages of tooling to the supply of final production. The team continue to support customers after the development process and for the life of a component in production.
They describe their contribution to the medical and technical sector as a unique one. “We provide a bespoke range of development tooling to customers. The constructed insert systems fit within our universal range of bolsters, to assist the development stage of a product and manage initial tooling costs. The modular inserts have some restrictions, such as limited temperature control and a reduced ability to produce undercuts. However, we offer the benefit of producing a finished component or part of a product to audit key features such as fine detail areas. This tooling solution can also be used for early low volume production, before investing in the full production tooling to meet higher volume demand.” Paul Edwards, Managing Director at Pentagon Plastics Ltd
Full mould tooling solutions can be created in their on-site tool room to further enhance the service. Some advantages of this are the dedicated temperature controls, the option of full side action movement and enhanced feed point options. This often means that multi-cavity tools are constructed to secure an improved component price or meet increased product demand.
The material selection process is a vital step in any product development. Pentagon say they are well equipped to assist in this area, having worked closely with a network of approved suppliers who offer technical advice to assist the selection of thermoplastic material. Having moulded many medical grade thermoplastics, its setters are able to optimise the production process with enormous skill.
To further enhance the product development stages, the company operates a 3D Printer and provide SLA, SLS and vacuum casting prototyping solutions as a managed service. While the product ranges don’t require cleanroom moulding, they do provide strict clean working practices on all of the production that passes through their mould shop. This, together with their strong experience of manufacturing and servicing medical mould tooling means they can offer a full service to those who require non-cleanroom moulding.
For more information on Pentagon Plastics please visit www.pentagonplastics.co.uk
