Ontario invests $860K in COVID-19 test component manufacturing

A manufacturer in Hamilton, Ont. is receiving nearly $860,000 from the provincial government to manufacture critical components for COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for hospitals and labs.

Coreprint Patterns will receive the investment through the province’s Ontario Together Fund, established to fund manufacturing projects related to COVID-19 and strengthening the local supply chain. The government invested an additional $50 million in the fund for the next year.

Currently, there are no made-in-Ontario sources for these components, which are difficult to acquire due to high global demand.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a deficit in local production of biomedical labware. Under the guidance of Dr. David Bulir of St. Joesph’s Hospital and Joyce Seto of Ontario Health we have identified specific items in critical need,” says Jonathan Hornell-Kennedy, owner and operator of Coreprint Patterns, in a statement.

“With support from Dr. Stephen Veldhuis of the McMaster Manufacturing Research institute, Oliver Kehrls of Niigon Machines and the team at Elliot Matsuura we have been working to produce these items. With great thanks to the aforementioned parties, Coreprint will leverage the funding from OTF to bolster the local industry surrounding the production of these critical items while creating good jobs in our community.”

Coreprint Patterns is a family-run business that specializes in mold making. These are predominantly for floor mold castings, match plates castings, investment castings and injection-molded plastics, as well as machining with a focus on castings.