Newsroom: Confluent Announces Significant Investment in ATI Nitinol Melt Expansion

Our Work Saves Lives

Work That Matters

Each member of our team has a direct impact on creating life-saving medical devices. From heart valve stents that keep blood pumping to the heart to balloon catheters that help open arteries, the technology developed and manufactured in our facilities by our employees saves the lives of people around the world. Start your career in the growing and rewarding field of Medical Device Manufacturing today.

Shane's Full Testimony

Director of Technology Polymers, Chattanooga, TN

I love my work because I love to create and problem solve. I came by it naturally.

My Dad created his own business customizing (glass kits, closers, lock sets) and installing industrial metal doors like those found in hospitals, schools, and large office buildings. As a kid, I used to tell him he “smelled like nails” because of the hours he spent in the fabrication shop. To this day I love the smell of metal and have found connection to that upbringing through artistic welding. My mom was not a fabricator—but a tenacious and resourceful problem solver. Constrained by cash at one point—she pulled the carburetor off of her 1970’s yellow Ford Pinto and rebuilt it herself—before the days of YouTube and cell phone pictures, she did it with sketches that she made by hand at each step, to remind her of how it all went back together.

Today, I get the privilege of being part of a fantastic team that helps create life-saving medical device components and subassemblies. As with any sort of manufacturing process, be it hollow metal doors or highly engineered tubing, there are always problems to solve. I draw from the foundation of their hard work, tenacity, and resourcefulness when the circumstances at hand seem overwhelming. However, these same problems keep me challenged every day and present continual opportunities for personal growth and learning. This results in work in which the hours each day, and eventually the days each year, fly by.

To spend time on the floor as Confluent Chattanooga’s product is transformed from raw material to highly engineered tubing and components–that will hopefully help some else’s parents, siblings, and kids live fuller, more fulfilling lives–is an honor that never gets old for me.

And today I get to go home and hear how I “smell like Band-Aids”. If you have spent any time at our TN facility, you know what I mean. If not, please come and visit, we would love to introduce you to the fantastic team in Chattanooga!

Shane's Full Testimony

I love my work because I love to create and problem solve. I came by it naturally.

My Dad created his own business customizing (glass kits, closers, lock sets) and installing industrial metal doors like those found in hospitals, schools, and large office buildings. As a kid, I used to tell him he “smelled like nails” because of the hours he spent in the fabrication shop. To this day I love the smell of metal and have found connection to that upbringing through artistic welding. My mom was not a fabricator—but a tenacious and resourceful problem solver. Constrained by cash at one point—she pulled the carburetor off of her 1970’s yellow Ford Pinto and rebuilt it herself—before the days of YouTube and cell phone pictures, she did it with sketches that she made by hand at each step, to remind her of how it all went back together.

Today, I get the privilege of being part of a fantastic team that helps create life-saving medical device components and subassemblies. As with any sort of manufacturing process, be it hollow metal doors or highly engineered tubing, there are always problems to solve. I draw from the foundation of their hard work, tenacity, and resourcefulness when the circumstances at hand seem overwhelming. However, these same problems keep me challenged every day and present continual opportunities for personal growth and learning. This results in work in which the hours each day, and eventually the days each year, fly by.

To spend time on the floor as Confluent Chattanooga’s product is transformed from raw material to highly engineered tubing and components–that will hopefully help some else’s parents, siblings, and kids live fuller, more fulfilling lives–is an honor that never gets old for me.

And today I get to go home and hear how I “smell like Band-Aids”. If you have spent any time at our TN facility, you know what I mean. If not, please come and visit, we would love to introduce you to the fantastic team in Chattanooga!

Lena’s full testimony

I love what I do because I know that my work contributes to improving people’s lives. I like to learn a lot of different products and lines. I really love the way they work and they give us the opportunity to train in other areas and lines to help improve. and grow as a person I hope to last a long time here.

 

Chaz’s full testimony

Not only do we make amazing devices and work with some awesome customers… We also work with some phenomenal people across multiple sites that truly care for the work and each other. I know that people strive to have a work-life balance, but to me, this has been intertwined on at least one occasion. My wife’s uncle had a rare form of Leukemia and was trying to stay off of COVID-19’s radar as his predisposition could’ve been fatal. Unfortunately, he did contract COVID-19 at the downturn of the pandemic, fought valiantly and passed from side effects due to his illness on February 18th, 2022.

Even though this is a sad story, it’s only half of it. Tears of sorrow and of happiness run down my face every time I tell this story because though it’s heart-breaking that he passed away, he had a small team he didn’t even know of fighting in the background to see what the next steps were if he were to come out on the back side of it.

John was the sales director for a customer who developed a device with EUA due to the grip COVID-19 had at the time on the world. Unfortunately Had Thompson didn’t get to see this wonderfully innovative device in action, but John was calling Bay Area hospitals that might be willing to use this groundbreaking device in the event he turned a corner for the better and might be able to come off the ventilator. Not only did John help, but the builds of this device out of the facility I call home in Austin, TX was truly a sight to see.

My main point to all of this is that just knowing that there are people working here that are willing to stick their neck out for a family member of “one of their own” makes this a place I want to stay and work for. Even though we’re coworkers and not family, it’s damn close. This is what Confluent means to me.