Small Volume Manufacturing
Bay Materials fills a special niche for small-volume polymer product manufacturing. For example, we can compound and extrude as little as a half-pound of material – an unheard of quantity for most manufacturers. This quick turn, small-volume processing is ideal for supporting the rapidly changing needs of small companies.
Thorough process QC and documentation
Bay Materials has flexible warehouse space that dovetails with our materials prototyping capabilities. We can evolve a small manufacturing line from a poorly defined need with full QC and documentation support along the way. If your needs eventually outgrow our capacity you have all the information and support needed to move the process to a bigger supplier.
Polymer Blending, compounding and extruding
Aside from technicians and common laboratory equipment, Bay Materials has small volume compounding, extruding and mixing capabilities along with an in-house stock of common resins so work can begin immediately. Many projects with clients in the past have begun with unknown requirements and ended with us providing the low volume product that suits their exact needs.
Stocked Resins & Materials
- Extrusion/Injection Molding Grade Resins – PE/PE copolymers, PP, COC, PC, styrenics, polyamides, polyesters, thermoplastic polyurethanes, fluoropolymers and more.
- Fillers and Pigments – Titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, carbon black, glass fiber, boron nitride, alumina, bariumsulfate, calcium carbonate and more.
- Conductive Fillers – Carbon black, graphite, grapheme, metals powders (Ti, Cu, Ni, Ag) and more.
- Modifiers – Antioxidants, plasticizers, UV stabilizers, waxes, coupling agents, tackifiers and more.
- Gel precursors – Silicones, hydrogels, hydrocarbon based gels.
- Adhesive/Reactive Systems – Epoxies, urethanes, aqueous emulsions, catalysts, accelerators, surfactants, dispersants, anti-foamers, flexibilizers.
- UV Curable Systems – Acrylic monomers, initiators, crosslinkers.
- A host of other compounds – ion exchange resins, pure solvents, pure chemicals, acids and bases.
- See a full list >>
Examples of prior manufacturing:
Orthodontic Material
Our client was a start up medical device company with an idea for a revolutionary orthodontic product. Working closely with the client’s scientists and clinicians, we developed a comprehensive materials needs and wants profile. After finalizing the materials criteria, we identified multiple candidate polymeric materials and developed manufacturing processes to speed them into clinical tests. Simultaneously, we developed rigorous laboratory test methods to predict product performance and lifetime.
Our documentation and quality system enables meets industrial needs, and allows us to deliver extruded and die cut product on a monthly basis with 100% on-time and 0% reject over the last two years.
Fixturing Gel
Our client was a start-up medical device company with a prototype device for blood draw from diabetes patients. A unique approach to fixturing of the blood lancets was needed on a miniaturized scale. We developed a gel material with just the right balance of properties for holding the lancets and the ability to maintain those properties throughout the device fabrication, packaging, and storage. The process characteristics of the gel in the client’s manufacturing facility were also critical as thousands of gel shots are delivered daily to the final device.
Today we blend the gel and fill syringes for delivery to an overseas manufacturing facility. Our manufacturing and quality documentation allows us to meet the rigorous requirements of this medical component.
Pop-Up Cooking Timers
Who doesn’t love a perfectly roasted turkey? Our client was an established company with a desire to improve on a reliable temperature indicating device. An organic material was desired to replace the existing metal based trigger component for pop-up roasting timers. A significant number of variables must be taken into account to deliver an indicator for a perfectly roasted product and a safe, convenient material that will rapidly melt at the target temperature is the solution to that need.
Bay Materials has developed a range of Precision Melting Organic Compounds (PMOC) with exact melting temperatures from 70-90 C for this industry. Materials are compounded at Bay Materials and their precise temperature properties are verified with each batch through our in house analytical systems. The material is shipped to the U.S. manufacturer for incorporation in the final device.
Today the pop-up timer market has expanded from consumer turkeys and industrial cooking to a much broader range of roasted products such as pork shoulder and tri-tip. If you go to the market on any given day you’ll see some of these timers with our enabling material just waiting to pop in your oven.
