Modern Machine Shop magazine features Whitmore micro works

Rob Whitmore stands near one of two machines used to produce a tiny, plastic tube used as a part of a capsule inserted into a patient’s arm to help control and monitor glucose levels.

Machinery at Medical Micro Machining in Colfax is pictured.

A local business man and Colfax native was featured in the February edition of Modern Machine Shop magazine. Rob Whitmore, president and owner of Medical Micro Machining, was featured for his shop’s work in producing very small components of medical machinery, as well as for electronics.

The parts produced at Whitmore’s shop are tiny, but they do big jobs. One such part is a tiny, plastic tube which is about 5/8 of an inch long with a diameter just more than 1/8 of an inch. This tiny, plastic tube will be used as a part of a capsule to help monitor and control glucose levels in diabetes patients.

“They will implant the capsule just under the skin (on the arm),” Whitmore explained. “That capsule will monitor the glucose level and be constantly transmitting to a smartphone or a smartwatch.”

If this small device takes off, it will help to eliminate the need for diabetes patients to prick their fingers. Whitmore said that each capsule has a lifespan of three months, so patients will need to have it replaced every three months.

“They’re trying to get it up to a year,” he said.

Right now, his business is working on helping to get that lifespan up.

“The one we’re working on, we’re trying to get at least six months out of that one,” Whitmore said. “That will be the U.S. version.”

Whitmore develops the plastic tube for Senseonics, a research and development group that he said started specifically for this project. He said the capsule is in the process of being approved for use in the medical world.

“It has received approval in Europe, but it hasn’t been released yet,” he said. “They’re just now starting the FDA process in the U.S. Once that is accepted and passed, I think it will be lights out.”

In fact, Whitmore said he thinks that tiny tube will really help his business.

“The tube – that will put us in a place we haven’t been in a number of years,” he said.

The tube is far from the tiniest part developed at Whitmore’s company. He said, “for us, it’s actually big.” While also still not the tiniest part developed there, Whitmore also discussed the eye tack produced there.

“The eye tack – that’s actually the coolest part we make,” he said. “It’s our signature part.”

Medical Micro Machining has been producing the eye tack for about 15 years, and Whitmore said he started with it when approached by another company.

“That company literally went all over the world trying to find someone to make that,” he said.

The company that needed the part is Second Sight, and the eye tack is critical to help patients who are blind regain some sight.

“It is inserted into the eye, and people who were blind can distinguish shapes, light from dark and see enough to be able to say, ‘there’s somebody who just walked by,’” Whitmore said. “They are constantly working on the resolution of that.”

It is not actually the eye tack that helps the patient regain some sight, but Whitmore said the eye tack, which is made of titanium, is “the most critical thing to the whole surgery.”

“The tack goes through the back of the eyeball, and it holds the whole thing together,” he said. “It holds the tiny electronic plate in place. Without that, they were dead.”

Whitmore started Medical Micro Machining in 1994 in Simi Valley, Calif., with business partner Ed Freer. Freer died in 2000, and in 2007, Whitmore returned with his wife Kathy to Colfax and brought the company along.

“We just moved everything,” he said. “We built our own building. The lifestyle here is just huge amounts better than a lot of parts of the world.”

Whitmore said other reasons for returning were his parents’ health and financial reasons. He said that he enjoys being back here.

“Coming back to Colfax was the best move we made,” he said. “The company is actually growing.”

To read the article featured in Modern Machine Shop magazine and learn more about other parts produced at Medical Micro Machining, go to http://www.mmsonline.com.