Fortuntec Solutions is a Hong Kong-based company that provides a fully integrated service - design, development, production and sourcing.

Fortuntec Solutions is a Hong Kong-based company that provides a fully integrated service - design, development, production and sourcing - for its customers. Its factory, located in Southern China, has been in operations for several years. There are 250 staff members, of whom 20 are project engineers, and the remaining are product and tooling technicians, machinists, quality assurance and production staff.

FortunTec specializes in four areas: (A) Product development (B) Tooling and prototype fabrication - plastic injection moulding, extrusion, metal die-casting (C) Production (D) Product sourcing.

The company performs the following engineering work (1) Product concept development (2) Engineering Design (3) Parts and products drawings and 3D solid modeling (4) Prototype fabrication (5) Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) (6) Cost Reduction (7) Material Selection (8) Manufacturing Process Development (9) Project Management Tooling Construction.

FortunTec's mould factory, located in Southern China, specialises in the design and construction of moulds and dies for injection moulding, die-casting and extrusion processes, utilizing CAD/CAM/CAE technologies.

It operates a complete set of machinery such as CNC machining centres, CNC lathes, EDMs, wire-cut machines, milling machines, engraving machines, lathes, grinding machines, boring machines, and moulding machines, etc Our engineering team is capable of designing and fabricating a wide range of molds and dies - from small miniature applications (precision electronic components and model cars) to large products, such as television chassis and plastic containers; single cavity to multi-component, and hot runner applications.

FortunTec manages a wide variety of production processes, such as injection moulding, electronic assembly, product assembly, metal die-casting, ultra-sonic welding, spray painting, hot stamping, electronic assembly, product assembly, and packaging.

The products are automotive, toys and gifts, electrical appliance, lighting, electrical components, electronic equipment chassis, etc FortunTec's PCB assembly factory is able to review and redesign circuitry, source electronic components, assemble the boards, conduct testing and verification, and deliver the PCBA to customers.

In its development of PhoneWrap covers for their V120 cell phones, Motorolla used RTP Company color development technologies to achieve a dynamic chroma-shift color effects for their product design.

When Motorola was developing a line of PhoneWrap covers for their V120 cell phones, they used RTP Company color development technologies to achieve a dynamic chroma-shift color effects for their product design. The technology uses precolored compounds formulated with a precise combination of pigments and dyes. During the process a dramatic color shift occurs between two contrasting tones which results in a metamerism commonly called the chameleon effect.

According to Joe Cameron, Color Technology Manager at RTP Company, 'This effect can be engineered using many technologies that vary greatly in cost.

We can provide maximum chroma-shift effects while minimizing the cost of the product.' Achieving the chroma-shift color effect with precolored compounds offers processors major advantages over using a concentrate because the color is controlled at RTP Company.

Regardless of the molder, color consistency is assured.

In addition to the chroma-shift color effects PhoneWraps, Motorola also utilized RTP Company colorists to create a line of PhoneWraps with metallic effects.

And, for their wide range of 'soft' PhoneWraps, RTP Company custom colored elastomers for specific material durometer at optimum cost effectiveness.

'These innovative products demonstrate how RTP Company is setting industry standards in color matching,' said Don Rogge, Business Development Manager at RTP Company.

'It's our speed and sophistication that sets us apart.

Rapid development was vital to the Motorola project and we have a long history of quickly developing programs for specific applications.

Temperature sensors provide accurate and fast reaction temperature measurement during the cooling phase of the injection moulding processes.

The new temperature sensors from Kistler Instruments have been developed to provide accurate temperature measurement during the cooling phase of the injection moulding processes. With the edges of the moulding often cooling down at a rate of 100 deg C/sec, fast reaction temperature measurement is essential. Kistler temperature sensors have both thermocouple elements separately fed to the sensor front where they are welded together to create a Type K thermocouple (Ni:CrN) positioned directly at the tip to measure the moulding temperature.

Even very small changes in the contact temperature due to process variations, such as changes in the melt temperature, can be monitored precisely.

Kistler temperature sensors have front diameters corresponding to the relevant pressure sensor types and are compatible with standard cavity pressure sensors.

The same temperature measurement technique is used for the combination pressure/temperature sensor Type 6290A which has a front diameter of 4mm.

Temperature sensors, used in combination with cavity pressure sensors, allow both injection phase and cooling phase of the moulding process to be monitored accurately.

* About Kistler Instruments - stablished in Wintherthur (Switzerland) in 1957, Kistler is represented in over 50 countries and has subsidiaries in Germany, France, Italy, UK, Japan, USA, China, Korea and Singapore.

Heavy investment in research and development, 15% of staff worldwide are engaged in research and development, has generated a number of innovations using piezoelectric, piezoresistive and capacitive techniques to provide solutions to numerous force, pressure and acceleration measuring problems.

These innovations include the world's first commercial quartz sensor, two-wire constant current technology to integrate sensors with microelectronic circuitry, high-temperature pressure sensors for use up to 400 deg C and three-component force measuring sensors.

Rubber, plastics and polymer components and the moulds and dies that produce them provide many opportunities for customers to benefit from using highly effective finishing equipment.

Rubber, plastics and polymer components and the moulds and dies that produce them provide many opportunities for customers to benefit from using Guyson finishing equipment. * blast finishing - several recent installations of Guyson Euroblast PF machines have been to leading automotive interior manufacturers to improve the bonding of wood veneers, leather, rubber etc to interior superstructure components. Effective bonding is helped immeasurably with a fine surface etch of the host material, which is often plastic.

These same Euroblast machines - benefiting from their side loader options - are also a preferred industry option for removing solidified and burnt on mould lubricants and similar encrusted deposits from the sensitive surfaces of heavy moulds and extrusion dies without damage or dimensional change.

These cabinets have proved to be particularly versatile in the use of low impact blast cleaning media and have created a wide range of mould and die cleaning opportunities where several new types of soft, non-abrasive media have proved suitable for cleaning the most sensitive surfaces which include chrome plated, aluminium and steel tooling.

On a larger scale Guyson's sister company in America - Guyson Corporation's SP-72 tyre mould cleaner is a world-beater; being installed in many of the major tyre company production sites around the globe.

* Ultrasonics - plastics and rubber manufacturers can also cut reject rates and prolong the working life of their dies and mould tools using Guyson's Kerry ultrasonic cleaning systems.

These systems are suitable for manufacturers of a wide variety of polymer products, ranging from u-PVC doors and windows to hip joints, toothpaste tubes and O-rings.

A simple ultrasonic clean and rinse is normally sufficient for window extrusion dies, whilst more complicated objects such as medical implants and O-rings require the thoroughness of a fully automated clean, two-stage rinse and hot air drying procedure, with high intensity ultrasonics being perfectly suited to the demanding surfaces of mould tools creating a fast, meticulous but gentle cleaning method.

Also considerable success lately has been had with the Kerry Microsolve Co-Solvent units for cleaning moulding gases from mould tools used to manufacture contact lens moulds.

As a result of a considerable lowering in the lens reject rates, increased throughput with lower operating costs have been achieved.

* Free component trials - whether your interest is in blast finishing, spray wash or ultrasonic equipment, Guyson offer free component trials, with no obligation to buy.

An injection mould tooling company uses bolster plates and many other standard ancillaries to produce tooling for an increasing number of intricate and complex plastics components.
Glasgow, UK-based injection mould tool firm, Xplora Mould Tools, specialises in the design and manufacture of injection mould tooling for the construction industry, for which it uses DMS-Diemould bolster plates and many other standard ancillaries.

Project manager Tom Rigby explained the reasons behind the company's success; 'The construction industry is using an increasing number of intricate and complex plastics components'.

'We have developed special expertise in this field, particularly in the creation of multi-cavity tools which enable our customers to obtain a complete assembly from a single shot mould cycle.' In order to maximise the engineering value Xplora's highly skilled staff add to the tooling, Xplora also subcontracts the manufacture and blocking down of many of its inserts to DMS-Diemould, which offers this expertise and machine capacity at its Devon facility, providing Xplora with a rapid turnaround and allowing it to provide customers with tooling in very short lead times.

A major upgrade to software for the automated design of moulds for plastics ncorporates a wide range of improvements to the mould design and drafting, and a new web-based ordering system.
Delcam has launched a major upgrade to its PS-Moldmaker software for the automated design of moulds for plastics. The new version incorporates a wide range of improvements to the existing mould design and drafting functionality, together with a new web-based ordering system. Commenting on the new release, Development Director Stuart Watson said 'PS-Moldmaker continues to combine a highly automated method for the development of tooling designs, with the total flexibility that results from its close integration with the full range of modelling and analysis tools within the main PowerSHAPE program.

It retains its unique ability to allow the user to exit from the automated process at any stage, carry out some manual adjustment to the design within PowerSHAPE, and then return to the automatic methods to complete the mould.

This means that users can benefit from the speed and simplicity of the high level of automation, and can also produce exactly the results they want, without any restriction on the size or complexity of the work that they can undertake.' PS-Moldmaker generates a three-dimensional assembly of solid models, detailing all the components within the mould.

This process has been made more flexible, both through the addition of catalogues from a wider range of standard component suppliers and through more automation in the design of non-standard tooling.

The new version still allows the user to specify a non-standard mould base, for example, when producing larger tools.

However, the software will now continue with the remainder of the mould design process automatically, selecting standard components whenever possible and suggesting appropriate sizes for any non-standard components that will be needed.

The user has the ability to modify any of these recommendations and, once the specification has been finalised, to add the component to a personal catalogue for future use.

A preview mode has been added to make it easier to experiment with alternative layouts.

Previously, the user had either to recreate the entire assembly with every addition or alteration to the design or to complete the whole design before creating a solid model of any component.

In the new preview mode, an outline of each new component can be displayed instantly.

This allows its size and position to be reviewed without any need to rebuild the complete solid model.

Enhancements have also been made to the Die Wizard functionality that automatically finds the split line of the product model, creates split and run-off surfaces to form the two die halves, and then dynamically separates the cavity, with the split surface, from the die blocks.

This now automatically creates flat areas in the corners of the block whenever possible to simplify the alignment of the guide pillars and guide bushes.

Another enhancement allows multiple inserts to be created for use within a single plate of a multi-cavity tool.

The earlier version of PS-Moldmaker included automated drafting of the general assembly of the mould.

This capability has now been extended to enable automated production of a complete, associative set of fully-ballooned drawings for all the plates, together with the related hole schedules for drilling cycles to be generated automatically.

As before, the Bills of Materials is generated and updated automatically as the design is developed.

However, the incorporation of functionality from Delcam's PS-Team task management software means that the BOM can now be divided automatically into a series of orders for the various component manufacturers and then e-mailed to these suppliers.

Tooling and moulding facility can provide a rapid response service for customers seeking to make additional modifications and design changes to their tools.

A new service has been unveiled by ARRK Product Development Group at its Teesside Tooling and Moulding facility so that it can provide a rapid response service for customers seeking to make additional modifications and design changes to their tools. The new service is designed to provide customers with a locally based facility that can handle Tools that are imported from overseas. Specific tooling design and manufacture will continue to be apart of Teesside's activities but with the significant increase in production tooling being supplied by ARRK facilities worldwide, including Hungary, Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan, the new operation will allow customers to have a modification service which is equally as responsive as our production capabilities, in meeting customers modifications.

Significant investment has also been made in Teesside to support the new operation in areas such as trialing, inspection and its handling capabilities, including additional trail presses, full CMM capabilities and enhanced handling capabilities for up to 10 tonnes.

Led by Cess Short, the Operations Director for Teesside and principal Tooling members Phil Cooper, Alan Robinson, Mark O'Reilly, Phil Walker and John Richardson, the new operation will assist in the speedy transfer of tooling and to ensure that they are up to speed quickly they will be carrying out final pre-delivery checks and in-house trialing for all UK customer tools.

This way customers can be assured that their tools will be up and running in their presses as quickly as possible.

Sligo-based Avenue Mould is celebrating its recent success in being one of the very first companies in Europe to achieve certification to the new EN ISO 13485:2003 Quality Management System.
Sligo-based Avenue Mould is celebrating its recent success in being one of the very first companies in Europe to achieve certification to the new EN ISO 13485:2003 Quality Management System for manufacturers of medical devices. Although accreditation will not become necessary until 2006, Avenue seized the initiative to put all the required processes in place at the earliest opportunity. With extensive experience of supplying products to the medical technology market - over 80% of the company's current workload - and a huge measure of expertise in toolmaking, the company already operated a comprehensive quality policy, but achieving the new standard in such a short period still presented quite a challenge.

With a global value of $169 billion each year, currently growing at 7%, medical manufacturing represents a huge market, and one for which Avenue is constantly looking to develop new services.

With this in mind the company now offers a single-source option for medical and pharmaceutical OEMs - providing a complete solution, from product design and development support, through tool manufacture, mould trials, optimization and validation through to launch-stock manufacture, in the company's own Class 100,000 clean room.

Avenue's ability to achieve all these activities in-house, in a strictly controlled quality environment, enables its customers to get their products to market, faster and with complete confidence.

Achieving this latest quality accreditation involved considerable preparatory work, including upgrading certain existing systems to bring them into line with the new standard, implementing new systems where required, re-writing procedures and updating the quality manual.

These documents were then forwarded to the accreditation agency for review after which a site audit was undertaken to review how the procedures were applied in practice and to confirm compliance with the requirements of EN ISO13485.

To reinforce the company's quality focus a full time Quality Manager has been appointed, to oversee, co-ordinate and document all quality processes, including undertaking the work required for the latest accreditation.

However, the successful achievement of this new accreditation in such a short timescale has been very much a team effort in which all members of staff have been actively involved.

Electron beam system operating in an argon purged chamber produces mirror-smooth mould and die surfaces in a few minutes, with tolerances in the picametre range, says the manufacturer.
The performance spectrum of Sodick's pioneering PF-32A begins where even the most precise processing methods and machine designs meet the limitations of physics. The PF-32A makes it feasible to work on the scale of 'picameters'. This is made possible thanks to a tool that has as yet been unknown in the area of metal processing - the electron beam.

The quality of any surface is determined among other things by the processing method used to produce it - this is true of machining, for example, and also of EDM.

Up to now, the best surface quality has been achieved through difficult polishing processes.

Now Sodick presents the new PF-32A, a finishing machine that surpasses existing limitations and opens up a new era for surface processing.

The tool the PF-32A uses is an electron beam.

First the work-piece is positioned in the work area, which is then filled with argon gas before the electron beam with a working thickness of 60mm begins processing the work-piece.

Within a few minutes, mirror-smooth surfaces with tolerances in the picameter range can be produced.

The PF-32A opens up entirely new potential for shaping the surfaces of die-cast components produced using electron beam-finished tools.

Thanks to their 'closed' surface, the tools also enjoy excellent protection against corrosion.

Overseas moulders had failed to achieve the necessary production quality for miniature mouldings, but UK toolmaker solved the problem.
Plastics technology and mould tool manufacturing techniques are put to the test when small parts are the subject. Toolcraft Plastics of Swindon were called in to solve problems on ten moulding tools where parts could be balanced on a pin-head. Overseas moulders had failed to achieve the necessary production quality.

In another delicate operation, an aerial component for the mobile 'phone industry needed sufficient plastic material to hold the shape, with the sides of the coil cleanly exposed for electrical contact.

The problem was to mould around a 6mm coil of 12 thou' gold plated wire retaining its form.

This needed a special mandrel to hold the pre-formed 'coil' whilst the material was injected to fill the vertical areas between the wires, whilst at the same time forming four slender columns of plastic for support.

The axial length of the whole component should not exceed 14mm.

Toolcraft Plastics have gained an enviable reputation within the electronics and medical industries for delicate, precision plastic parts with quality management to BS EN ISO 9002 throughout.

Diamond compounds, specifically designed for mould polishing, provide more surface coverage and improved impregnation of lapping tools. The products are also oil soluble.
Engis (UK) is launching the new HyprezR DiaMoldR range of diamond compounds specifically designed for mould polishing into the UK market. 'The concept behind the new range is both simple and revolutionary,' explains Engis (UK) MD, John Wellings, 'Building on Engis' technological leadership in the manufacture of superabrasive finishing systems for manufacturing, particularly products and services for mould finishing, a new superabrasive product range, DiaMold, has been developed. Finishing compounds have three physical constituents: the Carrier, the Diamond and the Delivery System - we believe we provide the best product in all three respects, and we have added a crucial fourth quality, Best Value - and that is where we score highest of all.

In today's competitive world mouldmakers need products that are closely focused on their needs.' Complex products such as diamond polishing compounds are available in almost infinite variety - for a mouldmaker that can be a problem - how to select the optimum carrier, diamond and delivery system for each particular aspect of each particular job?

Too much unnecessary variety leads to uncertainty and waste of both precious material and precious time.

Engis has solved the problem by refining its mould and die polishing compound products to a range of eight clearly differentiated and colour-coded products, each specifically designed for optimum performance on a particular task.

Products, which come in handy 10 or 20g syringes, range from 60-DiaMold for rapid stock removal, through steadily reducing micron-sized particles, via the 8-DiaMold for lapping and pre-polishing, to the finest 1-DiaMold, for final polishing.

The range has been built on well-proven Hyprez formulations which will withstand severe lapping conditions without loss of cutting quality and which use a stable carrier to assure sustained particle suspension throughout the process cycle.

DiaMold's unique formulation provides more surface coverage and improved impregnation of lapping tools, and the products are also oil soluble in order to meet the specific requirements of material and surface finish.

Plastics moulding tools in aluminium alloys can be made about 30% cheaper than the equivalent steel product, and therefore lend themselves to lower quantity batches.
By correct choice of material grades, plastics moulding tools in aluminium alloys can be made about 30% cheaper than the equivalent steel product, and therefore lend themselves to lower quantity batches. With the ever increasing pressures on both delivery times and costs, Toolcraft Plastics of Swindon have set out methods for the quick production of mould tooling using low cost materials. Designed primarily to support their own fast response plastics moulding facility, tool production is also available to others.

By correct choice of material grades, tools in aluminium alloys can be made about 30% cheaper than the equivalent steel product, and therefore lend themselves to lower quantity batches.

They are easier and faster to machine, with deliveries typically 50% of normal delivery times.

Being lighter they are more easily handled, do not rust and are generally corrosion resistant, particularly against PVC induced contaminants.

Also as aluminium conducts heat four times better than steel, tools run cooler, and can therefore be run faster, resulting ultimately in lower parts costs.

Polishing is also easier, for a high grade finish on the moulded components.

Fully equipped with modern CAD/CAM facility Toolcraft can work with customer's own tooling IGES/STL ( and other) files or design the mould from the component design files.

Final 'edge' comes with Toolcraft's ability to set up quickly and run the tools for trialing, prototypes, or production in all the standard plastic materials.

Toolcraft Plastics, who have years of experience in all forms of tooling, have an abbreviated analysis 'on the web'.