In the new medtech manufacturing environment, design engineers need parts faster, with fewer iterations and quicker turnaround. Spectralytics aims to meet those needs with its revamped development center in Maple Plain, Minn.

The laser cutting and processing contract manufacturer has a newly expanded facility dedicated to design and prototyping. The 15,000 sq. ft. facility is located in Maple Plain, Minn., about 20 miles west of the Twin Cities and 35 miles east of the company headquarters in Dassel, Minn.

Added equipment enables the team to help customers develop concepts, validate designs, design for manufacturability, and build quick-turn biocompatible metal and polymer prototypes. It features laser cutting, welding, and ablation machines at multiple wavelengths and speeds. Laser machined components in tube, sheet, wire, sub-component and other raw stock shapes are available. Post-processing services include marking, annealing, chemical cleaning, passivation, texturing, electropolishing, assembly, and heat shrinking.

“We’ve completely rehabbed the facility, “said Jim Bartel, president of Spectralytics. “We’ve actually been doing protoyping for years, but it’s harder to do it in a manufacturing environment.”

The new facility provides Spectralytics customers a place to collaborate and test designs for metal and polymer in one location.

The facility features 8 workstations, meeting rooms, universal tooling, and stock materials to allow design engineers to work on prototypes. The machines in the facility are identical to the company’s manufacturing headquarters in Dassel. “So there is a seamless interaction between the design floor and the manufacturing floor,” said Mark Goemer, sales manager.

All of these features have helped Spectralytics respond to customer needs for a faster turnaround, according to the company.

With the new facility, Bartel said Spectralytics can turn quotes around in 8 hours, and provide a lead in three to five days. This pace is in keeping with the changing medtech prototype environment. “We used to see design engineers get ten iterations, now they have one or two and they are asking for sub-assemblies.”

Such speed enables more collaboration early in the process, along with streamlined access to parts.