Short Shots: From the industry floor 20720

Advanced medical molding in Shenzhen

In support of its customer base of Fortune 100 medical OEMs, medical contract manufacturer Apec (Baldwin Park, CA; www.apecplastics.com)—a specialist in precision molding thermoplastics, LSR, and combinations of the two—has opened a full service, 35,000-ft² medical molding plant, complete with a Class 100,000 cleanroom, for mid- to high-volume production in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.

Design engineering and moldmaking for Apec Asia will be provided by Magor Mold Inc. (San Dimas, CA; www.magormold.com), Apec’s sister company.

Apec China reportedly is a state-of-the-tech facility that mirrors its 72,000-ft2 U.S. plant, using advanced manufacturing equipment like all-electrics, an ERP system, and U.S. and Japanese auxiliaries. Bob Desiata, Apec’s VP of operations, will oversee the new China facility.“Apec has a reputation within the industry for unparalleled customer support and a strong engineering team allocated to each customer. I am pleased to be a partner in their Asian expansion,” says Victor Tsui, president of Asia Optical Co. Inc. (Taichung, Taiwan) and a minority owner of Apec Asia.—CK

MICRO SHOTS

Mack medical achieves ISO
Dot the Is, cross the Ts . . . it’s official! Mack Molding’s Arlington, VT HQ has completed its “yearlong intensive focus on quality system analysis, creating and modifying procedures, and training personnel,” says Jeff Somple, president of Mack’s Northern Operations, and has been certified to be in compliance with the requirements of the ISO 13485:2003 international quality standard for medical device manufacturing. Intertek Systems Certification, the independent accredited registrar that conducted the audit, also audited and recertified Mack’s HQ plant and other Northern Operations facilities in Pownal, Cavendish, and East Arlington as having met the ISO 9001:2000 standard for quality in B2B matters.—AC

New director for two SPI divisions
In December, Terry Peters joined the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) as executive director of the organization’s Machinery and Moldmakers Divs. Previously, Peters was executive director of the National Assn. of Exclusive Buyer Agents and served in executive management roles at the National Emergency Number Assn., the Information Technology Assn. of America, and the National Coffee Services Assn., among others.—AC

Shanghai shoe center and new chairman for Bayer

Bayer MaterialScience says it has located its Global Footwear Competence Center (GFCC) in Shanghai for 7 billion good reasons. That’s the number of pairs of shoes made in China during 2005, and it’s more than 60% of the shoes made on this planet that has around only 6 billion people on it. Bayer intends to develop advanced materials and provide tech support from the facility. The GFCC will be the tech backbone of Bayer’s global polyurethanes systems house network, that material being nearly ubiquitous in shoe soles these days.

Back in the United States, Patrick Thomas, who became chairman of the board of management of Bayer MaterialScience on Jan. 1, 2007, comes from outside the company. A native of the UK, his career began with Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in 1979. He became global CEO of ICI Polyurethanes in 1997, and two years later took over the polyurethane business of Huntsman Corp. in the USA. He has been on board at Bayer since August 2006.—RN

Intellimold licenses Montel Plastics

An Injection Mold Trial License for the Intellimold process was recently awarded to Joseph Monteleone, president of Montel Plastics Ltd. (Windsor, ON; www.montelplastics.com) by Steve Schroeder, VP of Intellimold (Ann Arbor, MI; www.intellimold.com). The license followed Montel’s registration and training in using Intellimold’s integrated melt pressure control technologies. Montel is a full-service molding test facility.

“Montel Plastics is a globally recognized provider of quality services and we’re excited that they will be able to present and demonstrate Intellimold to their impressive customer list of molders, as well as to our own customers who request melt pressure control trials,” Schroeder says. “Our Intellimold process will help bring an improved dimension of product and process improvement in their mold trial work, as well as unveil our system’s benefits to their customers.”

All of Montel’s Engels, from 100-2500 tons, now have Intellimold closed-loop control capabilities. ISO 9001:2000-certified, Montel provides mold tryout and related services not only in the Windsor/Detroit region, but also to all of North America.

A cruise-control system for molding machines, Intellimold provides real-time measurement and control of cavity pressure by scanning two strategically placed pressure transducers in which a single variable is mathematically derived as a feedback for closed-loop control of the injection process.

“This extremely reliable and repeatable process helps in eliminating rejects while providing many other important process and product improvements,” says Schroeder. “Intellimold allows any molder, anywhere in the world, the ability to produce parts with more consistency than ever before.”

Intellimold packages are available either in new equipment purchases or as retrofit systems on existing molding machines. Intellimold also provides a full suite of advanced lab analysis and mold troubleshooting services at its Ann Arbor, MI HQ.—CK

Expanded materials testing capabilities

A major renovation and expansion to the Plastics Technology Laboratories Inc. (PTLI) facility in Pittsfield, MA (www.ptli.com) has more than doubled its laboratory space, while adding more capabilities to the testing services it provides, offline and on.

Five new labs have been added to provide advanced testing capabilities for machinability, weatherability, wet chemistry, wear, and flammability (for details, see box below.).

Its expansion brought the ISO 17025-accredited company from 5000 ft2 of lab space up to 17,000 ft², including 3000 ft² of new labs. It invested about $100,000 in environmental conditioning systems to ensure testing accuracy, and its facility received a monetary grant from Pittsfield for rendering its facility handicap accessible.

“As a general rule, I’d say that our turnaround times are the best in the industry,” says Jim Beauregard, president of PTLI. “We continue to maintain an average turnaround time of two to five days—a 24-hour turnaround, in some cases.”—CK

A bright idea

One of the first things a growing custom molder did after acquiring its new 67,000-ft² facility in Greensboro, NC was to purchase an energy-saving 60-ton Engel E-motion all-electric. The new plant and the new all-electric belong to Bright Plastics Inc. (www.brightplastics.com). Press capacity for this full-service, UL-certified, ISO 9001:2000-certified company now includes 20 machines, ranging from 60-1100 tons, which assist its efforts to better serve its medical, defense, and electrical products customer base. The company also molds parts for municipal waste handling, consumer products, plumbing, and automotive markets.—CK

Finally: Someone wants to help you export to China

If the reports posted on a new website are true, it appears the Chinese government is eager for its trade gap with other countries to close, and is encouraging exports into China. Joining that effort is AmeriChinaB2B Inc., a California-based company, which has launched a website (www.americhinab2b.com) designed to help small and medium-sized U.S. businesses export their products and services to China.

The portal offers a sales and marketing platform for bringing your company to the attention of Chinese businesses in need of your services. Features include online and offline marketing promotion, credential investigation of Chinese companies, language training, market research, Chinese translation, and offshore feasibility research. The website also posts relevant articles to help companies get started, such as “Four major obstacles to Chinese foreign trade” from the People’s Daily Online (although the correct link to the article was not included).

The time to investigate may be now. As of press time, only one company was listed under the category, “Rubber & Plastic Product Manufacturing,” which fell under the larger category, “Industrial Manufacturing”; and it was a plastic tubing firm.—AC