Walking down memory lane, moving from the early 1970s and up until now, you have probably learned that Elos Medtech in Skara has had an eventful history. Today, we are known as a global CDMO, providing the medical device industry with high-quality products that increase the quality of life for millions of patients worldwide. But our story doesn’t end here. It continues into the future. We are excited to see what it holds. Are you?
Elos Medtech is growing at a fast paste
Looking back at 2016, where we last ended our story, a lot has happened in the past few years. Today, we have a solid customer base of multinational medtech companies, some of which our relationship stretches over 20 or 30 years. We have also gained several new customers; large businesses as well as small start-ups with exciting medical devices that have not yet reached the market. Unlike build-to-print companies, we function as a strategic development and production partner, taking responsibility for all steps throughout the process – from development, design for manufacturing and construction – to production and delivery of finished products.
We are growing at a fast pace, and our goal is to continue to grow. However, that requires a solid foundation to build upon and capabilities to meet customer demand.
Meeting the increased demand for cleanroom production
More OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) want to focus on their core business and choose to outsource their production. In the past few years, the demand for cleanroom production, in particular, has increased dramatically. OEMs rely on the specialized expertise and manufacturing capacity of CDMOs (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations) to ensure the quality and safety of their medical device products.
Over the past few years, we have expanded our production site in Skara in several stages. We have invested in cleanroom production, injection-molding technology, injection-molding tools, and industrial robots. The focus of the last expansion in 2021 was to build a larger space for the ISO 8 cleanroom production for injection molding, sterile packaging, and labeling. The site, which previously stretched over 3,300 square meters, was expanded by another 2,400 square meters. Since the start, we have quadrupled our production space including our cleanroom area. This will allow us to meet the increased market demands and future needs.
High demand for recyclable high-performance polymers
Glancing at the future, we are also seeing that more OEMs are looking into the plastics industry because of environmental reasons. Manufacturers want to move away from using metals that have to be sent across the globe for sterilizing processes – which is not a very environmental-friendly solution, especially in terms of emissions. Instead, they want to use high-performance polymers that can be recycled.
In addition to being a more environmentally-friendly option, replacing metals with polymers provides greater design freedom, weight reductions, and better mechanical properties. As industries such as the automotive are already choosing to use high-performance polymers, we are starting to see an increased demand for these in the medical device industry as well.
The future of Elos Medtech and challenges ahead
One of our biggest challenges ahead to ensure growth is having the required competencies. Today, we have highly competent injection-molding technicians and toolmakers. But to meet the future demand, we need to recruit many more skilled professionals. This is why we are collaborating with universities such as Lidköping University to start a plastics engineering technology program to educate the next generation of injection molding professionals.
At Elos Medtech, we will continue to focus on understanding the market, our customers, and their needs. We will remain committed and strive to be at the forefront, investing in more production space, automation, technologies, and competencies. We will keep exploring the terrain of the medical device industry and constantly work to remain an attractive employer.
However, what it all comes down to in the end are three simple things: We need to create job opportunities. We need to recruit new talents. And we need to offer our employees an attractive workplace. If we can do that, we have all possibilities in the world to grow. And when we can grow, we can continue to provide the medical device industry with products that increase the quality of life for millions of patients worldwide.
If you made it to the end – thank you for reading and taking part in our story. We are happy to have all of our customers and partner with us as we enter the exciting future.
