For a high-tech molder like Cycles, Inc., staying ahead of the pack is a matter of delivering innovative, deadline-beating solutions to a demanding customer base. AutoTran is part of Cycles’ problem-solving arsenal.

Cycles is a precision injection molder of components for medical devices, telecom, automotive, and consumer products. Headquartered in Sterling, Massachusetts, Cycles has a blue-chip customer list that includes some of the biggest names in the medical and healthcare industries. Companies like Johnson & Johnson, Abbot Laboratories, and U.S. Surgical depend on Cycles for reliable fabrication and printing of components for their medical and surgical products.

Every component that makes up a medical device has to meet a dizzying array of industry and government requirements. Manufacturing, recordkeeping, inspection procedures, and quality assurance regulations are all especially strict for medical-device manufacturers.

With its business growing, Cycles recently decided to develop in-house printing facilities to provide customers with a single-source solution. AutoTran supplied, installed and configured a complete pad printing facility for Cycles. And AutoTran was there when Cycles needed creative solutions to some unusual printing challenges.

For example, Cycles maintains Class-100,000 clean room facilities for products that need handling in dust-free conditions. Clean room air is HEPA filtered and partially recirculated to meet strict submicron particle standards. Recirculating the air means that any odors – including ink odors – are recirculated too, and could build up over time. That could make workers sick. AutoTran’s Doug Parker provided closed ink cups, instead of the usual open wells, to contain ink fumes. The pad printing machines could then operate in the clean rooms as part of the manufacturing chain. “There’s zero odor, “ says Scott Nickerson, Director of Quality at Cycles.

Some printing surfaces create their own challenges. Cycles’ customers often ask the company to print on deeply textured or grooved surfaces. These are the worst places to try to get smooth ink coverage and consistent colors. When they ran into coverage problems, Cycles suspected ink consistency, but a solution eluded them. Cycles brought the problem to AutoTran, and the two companies adjusted the design and durometer of the printing pads in order to get. “Within a half an hour of speaking with [Doug], we were back on the road again,” says Nickerson.

AutoTran provides its own one-stop solution to Cycles. AutoTran supplies artwork, plates, ink, and pads to the busy molder. “He’s my only source right now. I have others, but I only use him,” says Nickerson I’m loyal to those who help me out, and he’s been excellent.”

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