Medica/CompaMed will take place from November 17 to 20 in Düsseldorf, Germany. This event spans 19 buildings within the Messe complex in Düsseldorf. Medica features exhibitors showcasing a wide range of medical devices, such as hospital beds, ultrasound systems, surgical equipment, and more. As for CompaMed, which focuses on component suppliers, we will be located in the USA Pavilion; our booth number in Building 8b will be F20-2. By being part of the USA Pavilion, we collaborate with other U.S.-based companies to offer a diverse selection of components for the medical industry.
This will be our 17th year participating in CompaMed, having first exhibited at the show in 2008. Prior to this event, we spent five years at the MD&M show in Stuttgart, Germany. This demonstrates Apple Rubber’s strong commitment to our partners in the European Union. Each year, we continue to experience robust international sales growth. CompaMed provides an excellent opportunity to connect with both our existing customers and new companies that may not yet be familiar with what Apple Rubber offers. We have built strong relationships not only with attendees at the show but also with many individuals throughout the city.
Apple Rubber experienced a sales increase of over six percent for our 2025 fiscal year, which ended on September 30. We are continuing to see robust growth in medical sales. Additionally, we successfully added new projects in the automotive sector and commercial industrial applications.
Our customers’ European division is engaged in strong design projects, while prototypes are often developed in the U.S. Our skilled Project Engineers support companies throughout the entire process, from design and prototype to production. They remain involved in each project to ensure that all design considerations are incorporated into the final product.
Apple Rubber is actively hiring and training new Project Engineers, Quality Validation Engineers, and Industrial Engineers. As we expand our personnel resources, we are also enhancing our machinery and equipment.
In recent years, we have transformed one of our facilities into a fully automated inspection center, utilizing new NELA inspection machines to ensure that customers receive 100% inspected parts without significantly increasing labor costs.
Our rubber injection area is equipped to process organic rubber compounds such as FKM, NBR, and EPDM at high volumes while minimizing scrap and labor costs. We are also enhancing our Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) processing with new ARBURG electric injection machines, and we have implemented ELMET LSR pumping units to ensure accurate ratio pumping of LSR to the machines. This upgrade allows for precision third-stream metering for color.
Additionally, we have improved our final part cleaning processes with new mechanical and ultrasonic cleaning systems, all housed within a single chamber. The latest addition to our capabilities is a high-speed CNC machining center in our tool shop, enabling us to create precision molds.
We have made significant improvements to enhance our ability to provide precision medical rubber seals to our customers. Our MicrOring® products, which are o-rings less than one millimeter in size, offer exceptional sealing for a variety of new medical instruments. In addition to medical-grade silicones, we now offer newly developed EPDM and FKM rubber compounds. With specialized texturing or coating on our parts, we support our customers who are using automated installation equipment. Our Project Engineers are available to assist with both design and installation.
Our machine shop continues to produce exceptional molds for our molding press line. This approach allows us to maintain the mold designs in-house, resulting in shorter lead times for tooling and the flexibility to make minor adjustments as needed.
We look forward to another successful year at Medica/CompaMed. We hope to see you at the show.