Mold Hotrunner Solutions Inc. of Georgetown, Ontario, is a new company run by hot-runner veterans Harald Schmidt and Danilo Kozulic.
The eight-employee firm competes against larger hot-runner players, including some big neighbors right next door in Ontario - Mold-Masters Ltd., also in Georgetown, and Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. of Bolton. Schmidt said the company emphasizes custom-engineered hot-runner systems and turnkey hot halves.
Schmidt said hot runners have advanced greatly in the past two decades, to the point where off-the-shelf systems, with the most common manifold configurations, are the norm. In those systems, which he called the ``building-block approach,'' he claimed, ``There is very little flexibility for special needs.''
Working out of a 4,000-square-foot building, Mold Hotrunner Solutions is designing systems for customers, but initially will subcontract actual metalworking to Ontario-area suppliers.
The company's trade name is Rheo-Pro.
Schmidt, Kozulic and the other core employees of Mold Hotrunner Solutions used to work at the Ontario hot-runner plant of Dutch company Eurotool Operations BV, which Dynisco Inc. bought in 1997.
The Dynisco HotRunners business was renamed Synventive Molding Systems Inc. Earlier this year, Synventive relocated its Ontario plant to Peabody, Mass. The core Canadian Eurotool employees remained in the area and founded the new company this spring.
Schmidt, a plastics engineer and hot-runner expert, is the president. He came from Germany to Canada in 1985, and worked in hot runners at Motion-Masters, Husky and Eurotool. Kozulic is vice president of engineering.
Because of its customized work, Mold Hotrunner Solutions wants to get involved early in mold design. The company does mold-simulation analysis.
Mold Hotrunner Solutions will handle sales in Canada and the United States. To expand its reach globally, the company is working with Mold & Hotrunner Technology AG of Höchheim, Germany.
MHT made waves at K 2001 by showing a 144-cavity injection mold that made PET preforms.