HILLSBORO, ORE. (Aug. 13, 2:25 p.m. ET) — Custom injection molder R&D Plastics LLC has added to its software and processing capabilities and leased additional space, said Rod Roth, president.
In June, employees at the Hillsboro-based company completed training and started implementation of two advancements: a Moldflow Advisor Ultimate simulation program from Autodesk Inc. of San Rafael, Calif., and a high-resolution Objet30 Desktop three-dimensional printer from Rehovot, Israel-based Objet Ltd.
R&D employs about 48-50 and has 14 injection molding machines of 40-720 tons.
In December, “we added a new electric Sumitomo SE220HDZ machine” that is designed for high-precision and high-process stability, Roth said. “Thanks to direct servo-motor drive and intelligent servo-motor control, this 220-ton machine meets the increasing demands of our customers’ molding applications.”
In May, the firm added a used 250-ton Toshiba that R&D is currently refurbishing.
Separately, R&D added a used 40-ton Arburg for the specific job of overmolding a strain relief on a wire with a thin diameter.
R&D now occupies 18,000 square feet including its recent lease of a contiguous 5,000-square-foot space.
“The office space improvements will be completed in late September,” Roth said. “The remaining space in that area will be filled with our current material racking and new assembly workstations. We will add the facilities such as plumbing and electrical for a new machine bay in the current material racking area in our current space.”
In addition, R&D secured an option on the next 5,000-square-foot bay in the building.
On Aug. 16, R&D offers an introductory space-limited seminar on Design of Experiments statistical tools from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Stuart Billette, the instructor, learned initially about experimental design during his tenure with the Hughes Electronics subsidiary of General Motors Corp. He has applied the tools to complex automotive, medical, aerospace and commercial problems for more than 25 years during employment with GM Hughes, InFocus Corp., Microsystems Engineering Inc. and, currently, Intel Corp.
Separately, R&D offers a half-day seminar on plastic part design on Sept. 12. Nearly 1,000 people have attended R&D Plastics seminars over 14 years.
R&D’s 2011 sales of more than $6.4 million represented 28-percent growth over 2010. “Our forecast for 2012 is for an 11-12-percent increase,” Roth said.
