Meet Nye - Jay Weikel
Jay Weikel has been with Nye for 25 years, most recently serving as Nye’s European Engineering Manager where he works with engineers across a wide range of industries to provide them with application-specific lubrication solutions. Prior to his current role, Jay provided engineering and sales support to our customers in the Southeastern United States. With much of the medical device industry operating out of Europe, he has an intimate knowledge of biocompatible gels and fluids for medical applications and serves as our primary sales contact within this industry. Jay holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Delaware.
What trends dominate the medical device industry today?
In my opinion, today’s medical device industry is seeing increasingly complex mechanical design and automation. Examples range from drug delivery devices to powered surgical tools to catheters to electrical connectors. Complexity and sophistication in design is growing as medical devices become more effective, targeting specific applications, new usage situations, and often utilizing new materials of construction. Miniaturization is an important trend, as is the requirement for compliance with strict global quality and regulatory standards and protocols.
What is a common question that you get asked by medical device engineers?
“Can you supply a ‘medical grade’ lubricant?”
There is a misconception that there is a certification system for lubricants for medical applications, similarly to those held by food-grade lubricants. This is simply not the case. The NyeMed® product line has been confirmed as biocompatible with appropriate data. This, along with our ISO 13485 certification, helps customers mitigate risk and make appropriate decisions for their devices.
Could you explain the significance of our ISO 13485:2016 certification?
Nye is the only specialty lubricant supplier that has taken the necessary steps to achieve this certification. It demonstrates Nye’s commitment to the industry and helps assure customers that Nye understands the requirements of the industry.
How have you seen the lubrication industry change since you started at Nye 25 years ago?
I think the biggest change has been utilizing synthetic lubricant technology to develop commodity products. For example, polyalphaolefin/lithium soap grease is offered by almost every lubricant manufacturer but not all of these greases offer the same performance. At Nye, we continue to develop innovative methods in order to solve our customers toughest challenges. Using advanced additives and lubricant technology, we can formulate specialized products that offer superior performance under the most extreme conditions.
What is your favorite part about working at Nye?
I enjoy learning about customer’s applications and helping to solve their problems with unique solutions. The wide variety of applications that we deal with makes every day interesting.
