R?chling Medical continues growth with expanded smart factory

The R?chling Group has expanded and upgraded an existing plant in Brensbach, south of Frankfurt, as part of its growth strategy in the medical segment.

Production started on 26 Oct at the expanded facility, which now boasts smart factory features and a new cleanroom which meets Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Grade C standards.

The German plastics processor said it had invested €7.2m in the expansion of the plant, at which R?chling Medical has been manufacturing high-precision plastic products since 2008.

“By expanding and upgrading our facility in Brensbach, we are responding to the strong growth in our Medical division,” said Hanns-Peter Knaebel, CEO of the R?chling Group and head of the Medical division.

Through the expansion project, R?chling has increased its cleanroom capacity by 2,000 square metre. This includes a new cleanroom and the doubling of the size of the existing cleanroom to 2,000 square metres. The existing cleanroom was also given an upgrade throughout the process.

To achieve flexibility in the new building, R?chling Medical has integrated injection moulding and assembly systems into the cleanroom.

That, the company explained, allows for the machinery to be repositioned or replaced quickly.

“This, in turn, allows us to fulfil the constantly changing requirements on the pharmaceutical market, especially in the area of injection moulding,” noted Alexander Stauch, managing director of the medical BU in Europe.

In the upgraded Brensback facility, all of the logistics, production, and mechanical systems for the plants are now interconnected, in a first step towards a smart factory, enabling early detection and correction of disruptions. In addition, data on cleanroom quality, energy consumption, intralogistics systems, and the central plastic granulate supply is constantly recorded and displayed.

R?chling Medical supplies standardised and customised plastic products in the fields of pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, surgery, and life sciences.

The products are used in drug delivery systems, primary packaging systems, surgical instruments, and disposable diagnostic items.

This is the latest of a series of investments made by the R?chling Group in its medical division in the current year.

In April, R?chling Medical officially opened a production building at its current location in Neuhaus am Rennweg in central Germany.

The business unit acquired American medical technology specialist Precision Medical Products, Inc. (PMP), based in Denver, Pennsylvania in June. The acquired business has now been renamed as R?chling Medical Lancaster.

In July the company announced the purchase of FRANK plastic AG, a provider of medical and industrial equipment based in Waldachtal, Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany.