In the next five years the global respiratory care market is expected to grow at a rate of 9.65 per cent due to increasing pressures on respiratory health care and ageing populations, and as a specialist medical device manufacturer, Armstrong Medical is in a prime position to take advantage of future opportunities, having recently added to its injection mould machine portfolio.
Faced with a need to increase production after negotiating a new contract to supply a carbon dioxide absorbent for use in anaesthesia and manufactured using a brand new suite of mould tools, the Northern Irish moulder spoke to longstanding partner Sumitomo (SHI) Demag about acquiring an additional machine.
By September, the new hybrid Systec Servo 160 was in position and helping to meet the demands of Armstrong Medical’s new customer.
The business growth scenario is a far cry away from a decade ago, after a fire in 2007 destroyed the company’s premises.
Armstrong Medical had to reconstruct the facility it had built up since 2003, ordering replacement injection moulding machines from Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, and just over two years later won The Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade.
Nigel Simpson, Plastics Project Manager at Armstrong Medical, said: “All of the assembly and manufacturing areas were destroyed, but we managed to keep a warehouse that had only been handed over the previous week.”
“That was a turning point for us because we were able to rebuild the way we wanted to and set the operation up to suit our needs.”