FLEXcon Company, Inc. has announced that it has acquired a narrow web embossing machine with a portion of the funds received from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) grant awarded to Carpe Diem Technologies last July.

The narrow web embossing machine will be utilized during the development of new microstructures. With quick and easy setup and no special skills required to run it, the machine will enable the company to rapidly run prototype samples on a pilot scale, a capability that will streamline the process and significantly reduce waste.

“Speed to market is critical for new applications. The pilot embossing machine will allow our R&D group to create a product sample without having to break into our commercial production schedule,” says Jordan Smith, Market Development Specialist, Performance Products Business Team, FLEXcon. “Before acquiring this piece of equipment, creating a prototype required several hours of production downtime for operators to set up and configure the machine. This inefficiency has been completely eliminated meaning that we can now create prototype samples for customers very rapidly without impacting our commercial production schedule.”

Microstructures are nothing new to FLEXcon. They’ve created functional structures for a variety of applications, such as anti-glare and light-diffusion, microfluidics, anti-microbial applications and more. With their new narrow web embossing machine, they will have a streamlined process for creating and analyzing each iteration of a new microstructure, which will speed product development and time to market.