BOY in the Trade Press

How Plastics In the Laboratory Broke Through the Glass Ceiling

As appeared in June 1999 issue of Plastics Technology

In 1985, Jerry Finneran put an end to a huge waste of costly chemicals in analytical laboratories. Back then, the workhorse of every lab engaged in microsampling for gas chromatography was a 12 x 32 mm glass vial. Filling the vial sufficiently to allow a needle to draw a minute sample meant wasting as much as 90% of the vial's often expensive contents. Following years of experience in design and production of bottles and closures, Finneran launched his own company to introduce an all-plastic alternative.

Thanks to a double-walled design, this 2-ml plastic vial had exterior dimensions that fit existing lab equipment but only 0.1 ml interior volume to cut down on sample waste. Still a part of Finneran's product line today, that sample vial opened the door for widespread use of plastics in analytical disposables. From its plant in Vineland, NJ, J.G. Finneran Associates has since developed over 1000 products aimed at solving the handling and cost problems associated with all-glass vials.

Smart designs

Finneran and his wife, Jo, do much of the design work based on visits to laboratories, where the Finnerans look for ways to make the lab technician's life easier. Finneran points out that some manual, repetitive tasks - such as putting in the liners and screwing on the caps - aren't the most cost effective use of a lab technician's time. "We can do all that for them," he says. Their innovations include the following:

• Glass-and-plastic vials, such as one whose glass insert extends 0.5 mm above the plastic so the cap touches only glass.
• Specialty vials, including one with a flange to center the sampling needle and a tiny plastic spring to cushion the shock of penetration.
• Snap caps with four plastic rungs that eliminate a prepping step and the nuisance of manual capping and decapping.
• Thermoplastic adapter sleeves that allow smaller vials to fit existing chromatography equipment.

All the products focus on ease of use. "People in the lab are resistant to change, so a new product really has to make a difference to be accepted," says Sandy Hitchner, Finneran's daughter and v.p. of this family business.

Industrial revolution

The switch to plastics brought mass production to the manufacture of vials. Glass craftsmen produced handmade vials at rates of no more than 25 vials per hour. Finneran injection molds thousands of plastic vials per hour from PP, K-Resin, and TPX. Plastics thus helped drive vial prices down substantially. For example, one glass vial that used to cost $2 has been replaced by a glass-and-plastic vial that goes for about 70 cents. "We developed that product because people used to complain about the cost of the glass item," recalls Hitchner.

Finneran molds vials on 11 BOY injection presses from 15 to 55 tons. Because the company runs two of its three shifts unmanned, the machines are connected to a wireless remote system that alerts maintenance staff if a machine goes down during the night.

Finneran runs a wide variety of molds, ranging from one to 16 cavities. "Our process isn't that tricky but the tooling is," says production manager Randy Eccles, noting that designs like vials with double walls or tiny plastic springs require intricate molds. Finneran changes its tools two or three times a day, a task made easier by use of removable mold inserts. "Most of our mold frames can hold inserts for two to eight different products," Eccles notes.

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