Thermoplastics and thermosets processor Camoplast Inc. has opened a technical center to support its design and manufacturing activities.
The center, in Magog, Quebec, will have a budget of C$9 million (US$9.1 million) over three years, part of which will be government funded. Camoplast chose Magog partly because the region favors the rubber and plastics industries for development, said Pierre Marcouiller, Camoplast chairman and chief executive officer.
The company will consolidate all research and development for its track systems and thermoplastic groups at the center. The track systems group - which makes rubber tracks and rubberized wheels for all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and industrial vehicles - has six manufacturing operations, in Quebec, New York, Iowa, Kansas and Finland. The thermoplastics group manufactures at four sites in Quebec and Michigan and ran a research center in Sherbrooke, Quebec, where Camoplast has its headquarters.
The thermoplastics operation claims to be the only blow molder of one-piece skis for snowmobiles. It also molds under-the-hood parts and systems for motor vehicles.
Several Quebec government agencies are contributing about C$2.3 million (US$2.32 million) to the center. The project will create 35 jobs in the complex and another 50 elsewhere in the company. Overall, it employs 1,850 in North America and Europe.
``The [technical center] will create a favorable environment for the development of new technologies and attract technical experts by providing them access to the best equipment and product infrastructures in the industry,'' Quebec employment minister Sam Hamad said in a Nov. 19 news release.
