Medical Niche and Proprietary Product Equal Success

In addition to its medical specialty, the 100-employee-strong company also serves the medical, aerospace, petrochemical, commercial, electronics, and defense industries with an array of services that from concept to design—encompassing engineering, prototyping, manufacturing, machining, assembly and packaging for leading OEMs in the aforementioned industries.

Initially, the company began as a plating company for an electronics firm that specialized in silver plating for medical sensors. According to Drew Santin, Micron’s Director of Business Development and Sales Engineering, in 1987 the company added injection molding to its capabilities and changed its name to Micron Products. “Since that time we have acquired Leominster Tool and Die, a 14-person production tool shop specializing in high-volume production tooling and die cast tooling,” Santin notes. “Leominster Tool and Die was integrated in to Micron Products in 2007—as well as the acquisition of medical molders New England Molders (Shrewsbury, MA)—in 2004.”

Before these acquisitions, Micron Products was purchased by ART, a public company that specializes in medical software for the detection of late potentials in post myocardial infarction patients, as well as the acquisition of Wireless DX—a company that leverages cellular and local wireless communications and smart sensor devices worn on a patient's body to capture biometric data, which is then processed using cloud computing based-software—in 2010. “Throughout this growth the strong tooling base maintained within Micron Products has served us well in our proprietary product line as well as our custom molding capability,” Santin emphasizes. “Our toolroom repeatedly provides not only superior production tooling but innovative solutions to automation, fixturing, secondary operations and production of medical machined parts.

Additionally, Micron’s Vice President and General Manager Sal Emma, points out that, “The ability to react quickly and provide modifications and repairs gives us a great advantage in competing with offshore tooling.”

Offshore competition is prevalent in this industry. “The challenges of increased competition from offshore—as well as local tooling resources—and the erosion of the Massachusetts and U.S. manufacturing base has put pressure on all of us to continue to be more productive and innovative in our approach to our customers,” says Dave Bergeron, Micron’s Engineer for Precision Machining and Moldmaking. “The days of expecting repeat business from customers without constant diligence are over. Quicker leadtime requirements have driven our development of internal capabilities. Responsiveness, quality and completive pricing along with making things right the first time is what keeps our customers satisfied.”

Value-added services are a vital part of Micron’s long-term strategy for success. “We are now entering into more complicated automation and support of the growth of our production molding capability as assemblies become a greater value-added part of our business,” Santin elaborates. “Speed is the major advantage of making tooling and support work in-house but also preserves our intellectual property with in-house work. We are very aware and protective of IP that is constantly developed for ourselves and our customers.”

To that end, Micron has developed a full capability of in-house orthopedic machining of custom patient-specific joints. “This was accomplished by the knowledge and experience of our toolmakers and machinists with more than 100 man years of time to build specialized fixturing and finishing steps that provide a unique in-house capability,” Santin explains. “The expansion of our skill set of precision machine work has provided us the opportunities to maintain growth through a tough economy. We are willing to take on new challenges with a constant effort to innovate and improve. With millions of dollars of investments in the past four years we have provided an ever-increasing level of improvement to our customers.”

Future growth will be in the form of Micron expanding its proprietary product line and its custom orthopedic implant line—as well as custom molding and tooling. “Having such a high degree of in-house tooling puts us in a great position to be responsive and supportive of both high-volume, high-reliability projects as well as fast response, engineering-focused customers,” Santin comments. “We are very excited about the future and anticipate continued investment in people, equipment and technology.”

For More Information:
Micron Products, Inc. / (978) 602-1430
micronproducts.com