hyperMILL lights up productivity gains for medical manufacturer

Opening its doors with just four toolmakers 50 years ago, Smithstown Light Engineering Ltd is now a business with three manufacturing sites and over 165 employees. Working with the world’s leading medical device and orthopaedic companies, Smithstown extensively uses OPEN MIND Technologies‘ hyperMILL CAD/CAM suite to streamline its throughput and maximise efficiency.

Initially a toolmaking business supplying plastic injection moulds to the electronics industry, the Shannon-based business transitioned to medical manufacturing in 1990—and it hasn’t looked back since. With two sites in Shannon spanning 80,000sq/ft and a third 15,000sq/ft facility in Poland, 75% of the company’s technology is less than 5 years old. Certified to ISO: 9001, ISO:13485 and ISO:14001, Smithstown has a bank of Citizen sliding head turning centres, in-house heat treatment, Rollomatic, Jung and Jones & Shipman grinding centres, DMG MORI and Mikron machining centres, Trumpf 3D additive manufacturing and Makino EDM technology.
Working with renowned clients such as Stryker, Boston Scientific, Zimmer Biomet, and Cook Medical, to name a few, the company provides a turnkey service from concept and design through prototyping, machining, and validation of medical components and orthopaedic implants. With over 14 million components manufactured annually, the Irish manufacturer adopts stringent quality measures that are a necessity for ultra-precision medical device parts used in life-saving surgery.
Alluding to his role within the company and a background in Smithstown Engineering, Gerard Henn from Smithstown Light Engineering says: “I’ve been here now nearly three years in the role of CEO, and I support the principal director of the business in the running of the operation. Smithtown started in 1974, so we are now 50 years in existence. Our principal area of expertise is precision machining to impeccable quality levels with customer service. We really pride ourselves in supporting the customer in all their difficulties and all their successes.”

Manufacturing high precision parts to stringent standards, Gerard alludes to why the County Clare company opted for hyperMILL from OPEN MIND Technologies: “There are so many different options in the marketplace, but OPEN MIND made it much easier for us to work forward with hyperMILL. The explanation of the facets, the features, and how we could optimise our machining strategies and cutting paths – it has everything. That worked in our favour. The relationship with OPEN MIND and its hyperMILL system came together and created a partnership with us.”
When Gerard joined the company, one of his aims was to upskill the staff, which was a critical necessity considering the shortage of skilled engineers. Alluding to this, Gerard adds: “OPEN MIND were very enthusiastic and got behind us. They understood what we were trying to achieve, and it’s been a positive relationship all the way through. We’d recommend OPEN MIND to any companies out there who are interested in upskilling their internal workforce – the partnership has been extremely positive.“
Looking closer at the types of work the company is involved in, Gerard continues: “We operate in the medical space, and we support the orthopaedic and medical device companies in Ireland and also globally. We also do instrumentation for procedures, so it’s very much a medical-focused enterprise.”
Occupying a large floor area and two facilities, the company is continually evolving. Gerard adds: “So, we have over 200 employees and two sites here in Shannon. The second site is just literally 1 kilometre down the road, so you find us trekking up and down quite a bit, but you see the same technologies and approach in both buildings. We have a third facility in Rzeszów, Poland, a business that’s been operating for 3 to 4 years. We also recently announced a major expansion there.“

“What we find in any process development is you’re going through an iterative process. You’re optimising the machining and cutting process, checking dimensions back to the machine to the virtual CAD station, and bringing all that together. So, I think the fact that OPEN MIND has supported us so much means we have a great understanding of hyperMILL. The upskilling is well in parallel and enables us to bring all the strands together to succeed. By success, I mean that we can deliver parts to specification earlier. That is because that’s what everyone wants. Customers want parts in their hands, and having that collaboration of everyone allows us to achieve that.”