"Micromold brings with it over 40 years of expertise from mold design to end customer fulfillment services that allows us to expand our services and capabilities to our growing customer base,” said Arterex President for North America, Bill Gerard. “The company is an ideal addition to our offering of high-quality precision injection molded medical components, assemblies, and product design and development services.”

ALPLAinject stands for high-quality injection-moulded parts such as closures, caps, jars and multi-part packaging components such as pumps or deodorant sticks. With this new division, the international ALPLA Group is setting the course for further growth. The ALPLAinject brand brings together all human and technical resources in this area in one central organisational structure. It comprises a total of three core technologies – injection blow moulding and compression moulding in addition to injection moulding – as well as global toolmaking, development and sales.

Micromold will continue injection molding plastic parts for medical device OEMs from Arterex’s FDA-registered facility in Mexico.

"The injection moulding sector offers enormous potential and is one of our strategic growth drivers. The competitive market environment requires maximum cost effectiveness and flexibility. As its own injection moulding division, ALPLAinject will continue to ensure our competitiveness in the future," said ALPLA CEO Philipp Lehner with conviction. The new division reports directly to the CEO.

The Informa Markets Engineering network of B2B media sites includes Design News, Battery Technology, Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry (MD+DI), Packaging Digest, PlasticsToday, and Powder & Bulk Solids.

Micromold will transfer its 24/7 operations to a 3,000-square-foot Class 8 cleanroom in Arterex’s Formula Plastics division in Tecate, Mexico. Micromold will continue to serve the medical, diagnostics, optical, dental, and laboratory markets, working under the ISO 13485:2016 quality system, said Arterex in the news release. The facility is registered with FDA.

Medical device developer and contract manufacturer Arterex has announced the acquisition of Micromold Inc. Riverside, CA–based Micromold has been supplying custom precision micro-molded plastic parts to medical device OEMs since 1984. The company is equipped with 20 Boy injection molding machines ranging from 10 to 33 tons in vertical and horizontal configurations.

ALPLAinject manufactures roughly 60 billion injection-moulded parts per year at 43 plants around the world. The division has more than 600 high-performance machines and systems. As a specialist in packaging solutions and recycling, ALPLA also relies on technological innovation. ALPLAinject scores highly with its decades of experience in lightweighting, alternative and recyclable materials; and energy-saving production facilities.

Arterex describes itself as a multi-capability medical device contract manufacturing platform resulting from the combination of NextPhase, Formula Plastics, Kabo, Luc & Bel, and ModenPlast. The company produces Class I, II, and III disposable and electromechanical devices at eight facilities across the United States, Mexico, Italy, and Egypt.

Standardised processes, centralised product and technology development; and shorter distances will ensure greater flexibility and efficiency in the future. "With ALPLAinject, we are focusing on the specific requirements of the dynamic injection moulding market. We combine technological expertise and regional market knowledge, promote the global roll-out of innovative processes and enable our customers to bring new products to market faster," emphasised the new ALPLAinject managing director Michael Feltes, who had already been business development director in the injection moulding section of the Group since October 2022. The global headquarters of ALPLAinject are located at the ALPLA headquarters in Hard. There are also global teams in all nine regions of the ALPLA Group.

The global ALPLA Group is setting the course for further growth in injection moulding by establishing the ALPLAinject division. By strategically concentrating all injection moulding expertise and capacity under this brand, the plastic packaging specialist is increasing efficiency, speeding up the market launch of new products and unlocking new market segments.