MARCH 27–ST. PAUL, Minn.–Operations are underway at a 22,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Dorado, Puerto Rico that Synovis Life Technologies, Inc. , a medical device manufacturer, recently completed.

The new facility expands the manufacturing capacity of its rapidly growing interventional business. The interventional business develops, engineers and manufactures guidewires, stylets, helices, and other complex micro-wire forms and polymer molded components used in interventional devices for cardiac rhythm management, neurostimulation and vascular procedures.

“We completed our plant renovation and construction plan ahead of an aggressive schedule and have started to manufacture product in our new facility,” said Karen Gilles Larson, president and CEO of Synovis Life Technologies.

Fariborz Boor Boor, president and COO of the interventional business added, “Our plan has been to launch manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico using a phased approach. We have completed the initial phase, and we are moving ahead with subsequent phases. The Puerto Rico plant duplicates manufacturing capabilities while providing greatly needed additional capacity for the interventional business. It will not reduce employment levels at the Lino Lakes facility, as new business is replacing work transferred from Minnesota to Puerto Rico. We also expect our Puerto Rico plant to attract new business from U.S. manufacturers located there.”

The Puerto Rico facility has a 7,600-square-foot ISO Class 8 cleanroom and a 3,000-square-foot manufacturing area. Currently, Synovis employs 27 people, including 20 manufacturing personnel and seven technical and administrative staff, in Puerto Rico. The company expects to employ 100 people there within two years.