2007 Issue

www.utahengineerscouncil.org 38 UTAH SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS www.uspeonline.com President/Treasurer/UEC Alternate Repre- sentative Jim Belshe, Workman, Nydegger Vice President/UEC Alternate Representative Eric Anderson, P.E., Parker Hannifin Corp. Secretary/Program Chair Kesia Guimares, ICU Medical UEC Representative Dan Church, P.E., Parsons Brinckerhoff 801-288-3224 T HE ICU MEDICAL PLANT IN SALT LAKE CITY WAS BUILT IN THE MID-1970S. IT HAS 450,000 SQ FEET OF OFFICES/ MANUFACTURING/WAREHOUSE. THE current ICU Medical operation was estab- lished in the mid-1970s by James Sorenson as Sorenson Research Inc. It was sold to Abbott Laboratories in 1980, and operated as Abbott Critical Care until 2004, when it was spun off from Abbott as part of Hospira, Inc. In 2005 Hospira sold the Salt Lake City operation to ICU Medical, the current owner. ICU Medical, Inc. is headquartered in San Clemente, California. The Salt Lake City products added $46.7 million to ICU revenue from May 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005. Please refer to 2005 ICU annual report available at: http://www.icumed.com ICU employees are proud of their profes- sion and their contribution to designing and manufacturing life saving medical devices. You can see that in their daily work activ- ity and their time commitment to their job; many of them have been working for 15 to 30 years at the same plant. Engineering plays a central role in the operation of this plant. The primary en- gineering roles are Facilities Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Research and Development, and Quality Engineering. Within these areas we utilize Chemical Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Electri- cal Engineers, Tooling Engineers, Material Science Engineers, and Manufacturing En- gineers. An ICU Medical engineer’s daily routine involves working with a variety of plastics and chemicals, dealing with Marketing and Sales needs, responding to customer questions, designing new products and manufacturing machinery / processes, performing experimentation and analysis, and doing lots and lots of report writing. ICU engineers are used to having many projects going on at the same time. They are involved in all aspects of daily operations and long-range planning. The company vision of having teams to accomplish tasks makes engineering more efficient. One example of these teams is the Latex Free Catheter Balloon team. Profes- sionals from different backgrounds and areas (production, mechanical, chemical, quality control, document control) get together every week to discuss the design and development project for this product. The formulation and chemical manufacturing process for the replacement synthetic rubber material were all developed internally. Rubber latex free medical systems are very much in demand since the natural rubber latex protein causes strong reactions on sensitive patients. The team has already launched catheter systems (Advanced sensory catheters and Pulmonary artery thermodilution catheters) that are completely latex free. After the full launch of this product it will be the first complete product line offering of pulmonary artery catheters with synthetic balloons made available in the United States. The product will also be made available in international markets. The team goal is to have all their catheter systems latex free. Being an engineer at the ICU Medical Salt Lake City manufacturing plant is a chal- lenging and exciting opportunity. It is also a rewarding job. When a company like ICU Engineering at ICU Medical KESIA GUIMARAES Master in Chemical Engineering - R & D - ICU Medical USPE Board Member Advanced Sensor Catheters and Vascular & Cardiac Catheters. ICU Medical is going to supply Hospira with the first complete product line of pulmonary artery catheters with synthetic (latex free) balloons. Medical focuses on safety medical systems it is easy to be proud of what we do. Patients and doctors deserve the best and safest medical devices that advance technology can provide. The engineers at ICU Medical help to ac- complish that.