Jobs added to meet pandemic parts demand

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Lake Mills manufacturers are doing their part in the fight against COVID-19. Aztalan Engineering, 100 and 150 Industrial Dr., is making parts and sub-assemblies for flow control valves in GE ventilators and anesthetic delivery machines.

“Many of GE’s end users are able to retrofit the anesthetic machines to act as ventilators for the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Kirk Kussman, vice president of sales and marketing at Aztalan Engineering.

The employee owned company founded in 1978 by the late James Brey was making these parts prior to the pandemic but is now building several years’ worth in the next six to nine months because of the increased need for the product.

The company has increased its production hours to meet the demand.

“This business unit is usually two 40 hour shifts but we’ve had to add a weekend shift and several temporary employees and shift other employees to help,” Kussman said.

Aztalan Engineering does precision machining, precision parts cleaning and assemblies.

“We mainly serve the medical device and surgical instrument market but have customer’s in several other markets that have high tolerances and quality requirements,” Kussman said.

The company makes a lot of parts for the medical field including: anesthetic delivery, drug delivery, imaging equipment such as CT, MRI, mammography, calibration devices, oncology treatment, soft tissue tumor treatment tools, eye and brain surgical tools, diagnostic equipment, sampling and DNA testing equipment. Other products include: clean energy fueling handles, valves and semiconductor manufacturing robots.

Kussman said the employees at the company are proud of what they are doing.

“Our employees are proud of the role they are playing supporting the country and helping meet demand for this life-saving equipment.”