Medical equipment market proves healthy for area business

One Source Manufacturing helps people walk again.

The Leander-based business—along with its subsidiary Skeletal FX Manufacturing—makes replacement hips and knees, spinal screws and other medical-based technologies that eventually go into human bodies throughout the world.

"The majority of our medical business is implant devices, and that's broken down to two different fields: orthopedic joints and orthopedic spine," said Clay Brandenburg, vice president of One Source Manufacturing. "It's rewarding in the sense that you understand how the parts are being utilized and how it's helping the end user go from a significant disability to being able to walk again."

Medical implants, tools and devices make up nearly 50 percent of the company's sales, said Kevin Shipley, One Source Manufacturing president and owner. The manufactured plastic and exotic metal products are used around the world and are even included in the machines that perform Lasik corrective vision surgery.

"If you've ever had Lasik eye surgery, there's a pretty good chance our parts were in that tool," Shipley said.

Shipley started the company in Pflugerville in 1997, primarily focusing on manufacturing semiconductors and other products made of high-dollar metals such as titanium and cobalt chrome. In 2009, Shipley expanded the size of the factory and the types of products being produced.

"Three years ago we wanted to expand, and that's why we built this facility," he said. "We couldn't bring on new customers—there just wasn't the room. So, once we got here, we quickly expanded into medical."

The 30,000-square-foot facility employs nearly 100 people, many of them skilled machinists.

The site will soon gain another 11,000 square feet.

Land price and the city's size swayed Shipley to relocate to Leander instead of elsewhere in the Austin area, he said.

"There is a lot more manufacturing in the Austin metro area than people think," Shipley said. "We made the decision to come to Leander because we knew the toll road was coming in, and you can get around a lot easier. If it hadn't been for the toll road, we may have decided to go somewhere else."

Shipley said a key to his success is manufacturing consumable parts.

"We have several Fortune 500 companies that we're their vendor of choice for the parts we make for them, so what we try to do is get repeat business," he said.

One Source Manufacturing, 1106 Leander Drive, Leander, www.osmtech.com