Custom injection molder R&D Plastics LLC of Hillsboro, Ore., has added to its software and processing capabilities and leased additional space, said Rod Roth, president.
In June, employees completed training and started implementing 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 presses with clamping forces of 40-720 tons.
In December, the firm added a new electric Sumitomo SE220HDZ machine designed for high-precision and high-process stability, Roth said. “Thanks to direct servomotor drive and intelligent servomotor control, this 220-ton machine meets the increasing demands of our customers' molding applications,” he said.
In May, the firm added a used, 250-ton Toshiba that R&D is refurbishing.
Separately, R&D added a used 40-ton Arburg for the specific job of overmolding a cable strain relief on a wire with a thin diameter.
R&D now occupies 18,000 square feet of space 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 offered a seminar on “Design of Experiments” statistical tools. Stuart Billette, the instructor, learned initially about experimental design during his tenure with the Hughes Electronics subsidiary of General Motors Co. 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 will offer a half-day seminar on plastic part design Sept. 12. Nearly 1,000 people have attended R&D Plastics seminars for more than 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.
