Metal components finisher Whimet Inc. announced today it will expand its operations here, creating up to 15 new jobs and new training opportunities for its employees.
Medical Coatings Find a Home in Indiana
Anodizing lines are critical for biocompatibility in orthopedics.
Nearly two thirds of the world’s orthopedic product manufacturers, including the medical industry’s dominant names, are located in Warsaw, Ind.
Supporting those orthopedic manufacturers is a diverse and exceptionally local community of Tier 1s and specialty services providers, including Whimet Inc., a prominent, second-generation provider of anodizing and ultrasonic processing, both of which are critical for proper performance of the medical implants that restore mobility to more than one million Americans each year.
Implants have an intimate impact on human patients, and what is required of orthopedic device companies and their supplier families is unrivaled in terms of quality, reproducibility and documentation.
President Lori Whitehead and Vice President Chad Whitehead comprise Whimet’s senior leadership team. Lori’s earliest memory of the business was a discussion with her dad, founder Murvel Whitehead, in about 1973 as he hand-polished a hip replacement component and explained how it would work.
“The implant industry as it is known today was in its infancy,” Lori says.