A new industrial design firm has sprung up in southern Ontario.
Lur Design Inc. is headed by Gary Pasternak, formerly with design company Compression Inc. in Waterloo, Ontario. Lur operates on the premises of custom injection molder Plastmade Industries Ltd. in Mississauga, Ontario, but its design work is not confined to injection molding, Pasternak said.
``Lur is not limited to Plastmade's capabilities,'' Pasternak said in a telephone interview. ``We would also look at blow molding, rotational molding, metal, etc. to fit a client's needs.''
Lur is a stand-alone affiliate of Plastmade, according to Pasternak. Both companies are owned by Joe and Susie Pinkitz, who are retired.
Pasternak helped start Lur after Compression shut down late last year. Compression was part of Moll Industries Inc. of Davie, Fla., which was forced into bankruptcy in September. Moll closed several facilities after the bankruptcy.
Pasternak, Lur's president, said his firm's location in a manufacturing environment helps the design and prototype process. When a Lur project fits Plastmade, Lur's proximity helps speed up tool building and initial molding handled by Plastmade. Lur occupies about 1,000 square feet of a newly renovated mezzanine in Plastmade's 42,000-square-foot plant.
Many smaller molders could benefit from an in-house design team, Pasternak said. Molders typically have engineering and production expertise, but they can lack marketing savvy to get a feel early about whether a new product idea is promising. A design team can act as an advance sales and marketing arm for the molder's or client's launch.
In-house design also can cut the time needed for launching a new version of a product, termed by Pasternak as ``product refresh rate.''
Plastmade runs 25 injection presses, ranging from a vertical model with 20 tons of clamping force to a 720-ton horizontal machine. Two of the presses can mold thermosets. The facility is ISO 9002 and QS 9000 registered.
