Freudenberg Medical Expands Costa Rica Facility

Freudenberg Medical (Beverly, Mass.) is adding 8600-ft² to its existing facility Alajuela, Costa Rica. The expansion will include an ISO Class 7 cleanroom for catheter manufacturing and assembly, including injection molding, extrusion, and packaging, as well as added office space.  Equipment additions include a extrusion line which can produce tubing from 4 to 170 inches long with capacity for up to 1 million catheter lengths per month; as well as two new injection molding machines—a 110-ton vertical press from Engel and a 320-ton horizontal machine from Arburg.

Located in the Coyol Free Trade Zone and Business Park in Alajuela, Costa Rica, the operation is 10 minutes from the international airport in San Jose and 90 minutes from the seaport.

Capabilities at the Costa Rica facility include finished device assembly, subassembly, molding, packaging, and tech transfers. Freudenberg Medical has 11 manufacturing operations and more than 1700 employees globally.

The former Helix Medical invested more than $4 million in the new Costa Rica plant when it constructed it back in 2011, anticipating at that time that it would employ more than 100 people. According to the Central American Group, there are approximately 70 medical device manufacturing companies in the country, including Boston Scientific, Cooper Medical and Medtronic, among others.