Elevate Solutions Group Shares Leadership Discussions Regarding its Medical Device Injection Molding Initiatives
A Three-Part Series: Part One: Manufacturing
Part Two: Tooling
Part Three: Quality and Compliance
In this segment: Reducing risk from prototype through production
Austell, GA | April 2026
Interviewer: Chris Gardner, VP of Sales & Marketing
Interviewee: Jim Casavant, Lead Tooling Manager
In this second installment of our leadership Q&A series, we spoke with Jim Casavant, Lead Tooling Manager at Elevate Solutions Group, about what medical device OEMs should look for with regard to their tooling.
Gardner: You’ve spent decades supporting medical device programs. How does medical industry tooling differ from tooling in less regulated industries?
Casavant: Medical tooling requires a more stringent choice of steels and coatings on surfaces that touch the molded part. Often, the part will be molded in a clean room requiring no grease, and graphite impregnated bushings may be required. Pay close attention to tolerances and drafts on wear surfaces, gate location, vent depths, and critical dimensions.
Gardner: From your perspective, how is Elevate Solutions Group positioned to meet these demands and what actions are you taking to ensure we are performing at the highest levels?
Casavant: Many suppliers will refer to themselves as “cradle to grave.” But at Elevate Solutions Group we are often asked to take on projects earlier. I like to say, “from the womb; before the cradle!” We want to be involved in the CAD for the initial design to help our customer achieve the best part, including mold design, manufacturing, and assembly success.
Gardner: We anticipate our ISO 13485 certification to be complete by mid-year. How does this influence tooling-related issues? Can you tell us about a situation where your customer solution, guided by these quality management system requirements, resulted in vastly improved outcomes?
Casavant: ISO 13485 is a proven tool that is critical in asset protection. This certification includes mold preventive maintenance (PM) which requires production and tooling to adhere to a schedule based on mold shots. Under this system, some molds normally on a 200,000-shot PM cycle are shortened to 100,000 shots. Building and tracking this shorter schedule has been proven to save the customer money – both in mold repairs and catastrophic failure.
Molds are our customers’ assets and like any plastics molder, we are tasked with protecting them. We recently advised a customer with a tool transfer that routine PM schedules would be part of their program. Not being part of their previous experience, it gave them peace of mind knowing their parts would always be produced by tools maintained to operate optimally.
Gardner: At Elevate Solutions Group, we have made a point of staffing our leadership team with experienced designers, engineers, and quality experts. How important are early tooling discussions to medical OEMs?
Casavant: Understanding the DFM process and what it takes to enable a successful product launch is crucial. Following a product design review, we want to understand each part’s function, how it will be assembled, and what its performance expectations are in the field. This guides us to focus on critical dimensions for part use and assembly. The mold designer uses this information to make certain areas of the mold steel safe, so we can groom in a close tolerance dimension. Process engineers develop the best process window and the steel is groomed to that window.
Gardner: Medical customers often require long product lifecycles. What is your approach to designing tools that can perform consistently over many years?
Casavant: I like to recommend a Class 101 mold using the best steel – and coatings if required. With every design we do a mold flow analysis to understand how the plastic will travel through the mold at production. This information is used to make sure mold components have adequate support to withstand the pressures they will be subjected to in the press. The mold flow information is used to predict gas traps, flow lines, and hot spots. With this data, we can design the mold to best eliminate “bad” molded part conditions. These efforts can give the customer a nice win: years of additional and reliable performance for their mold investment/asset.
Gardner: What should medical OEMs look for in a molding partner’s tooling team when qualifying a new supplier?
Casavant: OEMs should consider the successful projects that have been kicked off and maintained in production. They should ask about the quality standards and tooling and production maintenance programs that keep the molds and molding machines operating in peak condition.
Team members must understand these requirements and a true and valuable molding partner is always happy to share their knowledge with the customer.
Gardner: How does close collaboration between tooling, engineering, QA, and manufacturing teams improve predictability for medical customers?
Casavant: Tooling engineers, process engineers, quality engineers, the IT team, and even building maintenance each bring their unique knowledge to help solve any challenges that may arise. Working together to help improve the process is how we grow and can continually deliver the best quality part for our customer.
Gardner: Since joining Elevate Solutions Group last year, you have completely redesigned the tool shop, purchased new equipment, and established new rules and guidelines related to how customer molds are maintained and serviced. What is your vision for the company as we address the growing demands of our medical customers?
Casavant: The tooling area is such an important part of the company’s effort to help support production and customer needs. By expanding tooling capabilities in-house, we can build a more robust history for each mold and better understand the needs of each mold. We can maintain more machine uptime and production hours to ensure on-time delivery of customer orders. Recently added new equipment and technologies enable us to respond quicker to engineering changes and tool repairs.
Gardner: Elevate Solutions Group is recognized as one the industry’s fastest-growing companies in Georgia. What are some of your observations that have contributed to our success?
Casavant: Success starts from the top. Our leadership understands the business and has built a team that is well positioned to address all the needs our customers may require. All team members are encouraged to contribute and speak their minds. Diverse knowledge is respected by upper management, and this has made the work environment successful for us and our customers.
In Closing
“Medical device manufacturing demands discipline, consistency, and trust. Those principles guide how we build processes, lead teams, and support our customers every day. Elevate Solutions Group has made strategic hires like Jim to bring deep industry experience to the table. This series is designed to share insights from some of those key individuals.”
Chris Gardner, VP of Sales & Marketing
About Elevate Solutions Group
Elevate Solutions Group is a rapidly growing, vertically integrated contract manufacturer serving medical, telecommunications, consumer, and industrial markets from its modern campus just outside Atlanta in Austell, Georgia. With more than 30 injection molding presses ranging from 80–950 tons and 240,000+ square feet of ISO 9001-certified, FDA-registered operations, ESG delivers customer-centric focus in precision molding, packaging & assembly, kitting, warehousing, and full 3PL services. Elevate’s capabilities include designing, engineering, producing, and assembling complex products as well as holding stock and shipping globally through a data-driven distribution center. https://esgworks.com/