Freudenberg Medical expansion supports U.S. demand

BEVERLY, Mass.—Freudenberg Medical is expanding its manufacturing plant in Alajuela, Costa Rica—the second addition the company has made at the site in the last five years—to keep pace with the rapid growth the business has experienced.

Approximately 8,600 square feet will be added to the company's existing 17,200-sq.-ft. facility, according to Max Kley, CEO of Freudenberg Medical. Included in the addition is an ISO Class 7 clean room to be used for manufacturing catheters along with molding, extrusion assembly and packaging components. The expansion also will give the company additional room for more office space.

Cost of the project was not disclosed.

Kley said new machinery will be added, including an Arburg all-electric injection molding machine and an Engel upright injection molding machine, as well as an advanced thermoplastic extrusion line for catheter manufacturing. The line can produce tubing from 4 inches long to 170 inches long with a capacity of up to 1 million parts per month, he said.

In addition, he said, about 70 more employees will be brought on board to bolster Beverly-headquartered Freudenberg Medical's work force of 130 at the Costa Rica plant.

Kley added that the project is expected to be complete and the clean room ready for production in October.

While the expansion will help the company—a global designer, developer and manufacturer of a wide range of medical devices, components and products—fill needs in Costa Rica, the plant primarily serves customers in the U.S., plus some customers in Latin America and Europe, according to Kley.

"Costa Rica has grown as an important medical device cluster in recent years, and Freudenberg Medical is part of the story," he noted. The firm's FDA-registered clean room operation is located in the Coyal Free Zone, the central hub for life science companies and medical device original equipment manufacturing sites.

Once the expansion is complete, Kley said, "new projects will be transferred from a customer site to the new manufacturing area."

Freudenberg Medical's expansion allows the firm to increase its capabilities and capacity for catheter manufacturing, assemblies, injection molding and medical tubing, according to the company, which is a business within the Weinheim, Germany-based Freudenberg Group of companies.

"Freudenberg Medical has continued to grow rapidly in spite of the pandemic and is experiencing accelerated growth in all regions in 2021," he said.

"Our growth is driven by the general trend in the medical device industry to outsource the manufacturing of components and finished devices to global, technologically advanced suppliers," Kley added. "With 11 facilities worldwide and strong platform technologies, Freudenberg Medical is the partner of choice for the leading medical device companies."