Editor in chief of PlasticsToday since 2015, Norbert Sparrow has more than 30 years of editorial experience in business-to-business media. He studied journalism at the Centre Universitaire d'Etudes du Journalisme in Strasbourg, France, where he earned a master's degree.

Established in 1990 as a supplier of tooling and manufacturing services for small, precise, and complex applications, New Richmond, WI–based Isometric added precision micromolding to its portfolio in 2013. The company was purchased by Donna Bibber and Wayne Shakal in 2021, becoming CEO and president, respectively. Isometric has established itself as a leading supplier of micromolding services to the medical device industry. Through the acquisition, it will become a subsidiary of Nissha Medical.

As part of its effort to strengthen those capabilities, Nissha also announced on Nov. 7, 2023, a capital and business partnership with Nashville-based EndoTheia Inc., specialized in the design and development of endoscopic devices. The acquisition of Isometric greatly enhances this partnership “as we expand our CDMO business through manufacturing technology, intellectual property, and vertically integrated capabilities,” commented Nissha.

“Isometric’s proprietary tooling and process technologies for micromolding have positioned them as trailblazers in achieving single-micron tolerances,” said Nissha Medical in the announcement. “Their micro-formed products have significantly contributed to the miniaturization of endoscopic and surgical devices, enhancing functionality and driving improved patient outcomes,” the company added, citing Isometric’s in-house expertise in tool making, molding process controls, advanced metrology, micro 3D printing, and micro-assembly automation platforms.

Hi Greg,The 3DP texture (stair stepping effect) can be significantly reduced through an automated post processing operation, which polishes the 3DP parts to a smooth finish.  Visual comparison of bottles blown with this post process and polished metal tooling shows comparable bottle clarity and significant improvement on the stair stepping appearance.  The post process takes 2-3 hours and it is fully automated.  We are in the process of making production quality molds, which can potentially increase the output of the 3DP molds to up to 100,000 bottles, through mechanical electroplating.  This will also help in improving the surface quality, while still keeping the cost of the tooling relatively low.Rain’s write up is the best one I’ve seen on this technology.  It is poignant, as it comes from an ID’s POV.  IDs come from a Design Thinking approach.  Engineers as myself approach it from a Systems Thinking POV.  We intersect on the need at some point to prototype and test.  I developed this solution with this need in mind.  I am very glad to see that this solution is appreciated by the ID community.Rain, this technology along with others that my team and I are engaged in is geared towards our sustainable efforts ad well as innovation, so please don’t be torn by this solution.Thanks,Max R.

In the case study it is clear from the photos that the bottle's surface telegraphs the 3D printing texture. Ok for protos, but in production? Also, blow molding is a low pressure operation- I doubt these inserts could withstand injection molding temps and pressures. Still, very cool.

Nissha Medical Technologies’ Japan-based parent company sees “immense growth potential” in contract design, development, and manufacturing services for the medical device market.

Nissha Medical Technologies has formalized a definitive agreement to acquire majority equity in micromolding company Isometric Intermediate LLC.

People have messed around with this before, but the problem has been durability and cost. A 3D-printed ABS insert is nowhere near as strong as steel, and you can blow-mold maybe 100 bottles before the insert fails. Hardly worth your time and money, particularly since the PolyJet 3D printers required cost $250,000, the Digital ABS material you print with runs $422 per kilogram, and the prints can take three days.

The obvious route to make the inserts would be to cnc them out of aluminium. Their geometry let you do this as one-sided milling from pre-sized blocks.In 48 hours, with a decent cnc machine, you would get a much better surface than the prints can provide. If it is about prototyping, then standard abs will work, if it is about production run of 10000 bottles, the superior surface finish of cnc milled aluminium would be desireable. The 3d printing technology here is cool, but I dont really see a benefit to use it to make these inserts.

For material, the team used a polymer called xPEEK147, made by Henkel Loctite. xPEEK147 is tough, thermally stable and has high dimensional stability, and rings in at just $308 per kilogram.

As a former package designer, I'm torn on this. I think it would've been so cool to be able to produce new bottle runs and design changes for small batches—new bottles for the World Cup and other major events. And I'm super-impressed with the technologies harnessed here. But then I start thinking wait…don't we have a plastic bottle problem?

A contract design/development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), Wisconsin-based Nissha Medical Technologies is part of Japan’s Nissha Co. Ltd. The acquisition, which is expected to close later this month, will bolster Nissha Medical’s capabilities in the design, development, and manufacture of minimally invasive surgical devices and medical wearables, and further expand medtech innovation, said the company.

To solve this, a research team led by Max Rodriguez, PepsiCo Senior Manager of Global Packaging R&D, turned to 3D printer manufacturer Nexa3D. The company used their NXE 400 Printer, an ultrafast machine "capable of printing at injection molding repeatability and tolerances, making it the fastest and most accurate production 3D printer in its category," the company says. It also costs just $60,000.

That was in the '90s, and today you can have steel cut for a new bottle mold in about 4 weeks. However, Pepsi has figured out how to get that time down to just 48 hours, and with a cost savings of up to $10,000. It's staggering.

During my days as a structural package designer, when designing a new bottle, the last step for our department was to produce the CAD drawing of a new design. Then it went over to Engineering, who would tweak our CAD to produce the tooling drawing. Then we were ready to "cut steel," i.e. have the molds made for the blow-molding machine. That last step took months, and cost five figures.

The way they do it is by not cutting steel at all. Instead they use a universal mold shell, then they 3D-print an insert that goes inside the mold.

At the time of writing, Isometric is scheduled to exhibit at Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) West in Anaheim, CA, on Feb. 6 to 8, 2024. MD&M is part of IME West 2024, which also includes Plastec West.

Nissha Medical’s parent company said that it sees “immense growth potential” in the medical CDMO market and plans to expand its pipeline by broadening its capabilities to better serve the development of minimally invasive surgical instruments. It also expressed an ambition to explore possibilities within the surgical robotics field.

When I worked for a Precious Plastic project in the UK we tested injection moulding (at 220C for polypropylene) into polycarbonate moulds inside a steel liner, that worked just fine. PEEK is significantly more temperature and pressure resistant that PC though! My co-founder designed a no-touch tool for COVID made from recycled LDPE injected into printed Nylon moulds. Those moulds lasted hundreds of injections at around 170C. I don't think they ever failed. Check the team out at Relic Plastic.