California molder, toolmaker adjusts to changing medical market

Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. — Donna Pursell pays close attention to the medical market as owner and CEO of both Prestige Mold Inc. and Pres-Tek Plastics Inc.

"A lot of consolidation is occurring in the business," Pursell said. Over three years, a domestic customer "gobbled up" four of her companies' other clients.

Medical work accounts for all of injection molder Pres-Tek's sales and about 90 percent of Prestige sales with the mold maker's remainder in consumer and industrial jobs.

Located in adjacent buildings, Prestige and Pres-Tek are looking to expand in different ways, Purcell said in an interview in Rancho Cucamonga, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.

Prestige plans to acquire advanced equipment to increase its throughput volume in making molds.

Pres-Tek intends to increase its physical footprint although no immediate change is foreseen.

Turnkey projects are becoming more important to both companies. During 2017, the two organizations completed three full cells, handled 10 significant turnkey activities such as adding to a package mold and proving its viability, and also worked on 50 low-key turnkey activities.

Prior to Pres-Tek involvement, Prestige would add value, but more was possible. "Now, the process is more sophisticated with Pres-Tek capabilities," Pursell said.

A Prestige-Pres-Tek project might take two to three months for the full validation of a turnkey project. In comparison, an original equipment manufacturer might need a year if handling validation internally.

Among its turnkey jobs, Prestige received a customer's order in July and will deliver the mold to Pres-Tek in January for validation. The customer should receive the turnkey project in February.

The organizations also provide an accessible portal through which a customer can log in and see the availability of spare components and review the status of an existing job.

Over the past 12 months, Prestige has made capital investments of about $2 million.

The acquisitions included three System 3R Transformer-brand robots and six Charmilles Form 200 electrical discharge machines that are configured together in three processing cells, said Lance Spangler, Prestige president.

Other purchases were two Makino V33i vertical machining centers, two Makino F5 vertical die-mold milling and machining centers, a Zeiss Micura coordinate measuring machine and a Zeiss Surfcom surface measuring instrument.

Prestige also installed a Foba laser marking system from Alltec GmbH of Selmsdorf, Germany, with capability to etch a mold's job number, insert location, material and cavity identification.

In addition, Prestige operates five more Makino V33i centers for finishing work and two more Makino F5 centers for preliminary processing.

In early 2017, Prestige invested in injection molding simulation software from Moldex3D North America Inc. of Farmington Hills, Mich.

Spangler said Prestige is making molds with more cavities.

For example, a full hot runner side-gated 128-cavity mold with unwinding cores will undergo validation trials on a 300-ton electric press at Pres-Tek. The hot runner system is from Ewikon GmbH, and Edro Engineering Inc. supplied the mold base.

For Prestige mold makers, "the sweet spot is 16-64 cavities," Spangler said.

Pursell said Prestige owns its 30,000-square-foot facility, which employs 85, including 14 journeyman mold makers and seven polishing specialists. She projected 2017 sales of $28 million, up from $25 million last year.

More than 25 percent of Prestige sales result from internal and external work in the repair and maintenance of molds and hot runners.

Over the past 12 months, Pres-Tek has invested about $1.5 million for equipment and technology.

In late September, Pres-Tek received delivery of a 200-ton Toyo press. Within a two-week period, Pres-Tek installed and calibrated the machine and validated a mold.

In December, Pres-Tek expects to receive a 440-ton all-electric Arburg as the shop's 12th and largest injection molding machine.

In addition to the 200- and 440-ton units, seven other Arburgs, two Husky presses and another Toyo complete Pres-Tek's inventory. Clamping forces start at 110 tons.

Pres-Tek has eight presses in its clean room, four more in the white room and an open bay for turnkey projects.

In a pending arrangement, a customer may install a liquid silicone rubber injection molding machine in the open bay for a particular opportunity.

Pres-Tek occupies a leased facility of 17,285 square feet, including the 5,000-square-foot Class 100,000 clean room and the 2,800-square-foot controlled-environment white room.

Nearby, Pres-Tek has taken another 13,000 square feet for warehousing.

Pres-Tek employs 45. The 2017 sales projection is $7.5 million, up from $4.9 million last year.

Pres-Tek works closely on training with RJG Inc. in Traverse City, Mich. Pres-Tek employs a Master Molder I and two Master Molders II and has others in training with RJG.

Pres-Tek uses ERP software from IQMS of Paso Robles, Calif.

During 2016 and 2017, Prestige and Pres-Tek hired three engineering graduates of the plastics engineering technology program at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Calif. One had served an internship at Pres-Tek.

Effective Oct. 1 at Pres-Tek, Pursell promoted her son, Andrew Koebel, to president from operations manager and Ron Noggle to vice president of sales and marketing.

Pursell's daughter, Lyndsay Petersen, is office manager for both businesses.

On Nov. 16, about 50 members and guests of the Southern California Section of the Society of Plastics Engineers toured the Prestige and Pres-Tek facilities.