Press Releases

Thursday, November 2, 2006
Article from Job Shop Technology
"Molder Meets Customers' Needs through Close Teamwork at all Levels"

Pittsfield, MA—Hi-Tech Mold & Tool, Inc. is an ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100-certified custom injection molder that manufactures a variety of parts for the medical industry, including sterilization trays and silicone mats and bars that fit in the sterilization trays to hold medical instruments. Hi-Tech also produces components for disposable fluid collection systems, ear tips for hearing test equipment, syringe bodies, filtrate systems, and trays and containers for specimen testing.

According to Ann Fyfe, the company's manager of sales, marketing, and customer care, Hi-Tech has years of experience in molding high-end engineering resins. Its team of experienced and highly skilled designers, tool makers, and processors are "collectively involved up front" on projects and throughout them. The company welcomes highly technical and demanding projects and, if a customer needs a service that the company doesn't offer, Hi-Tech will explore the possibility of implementing that service, says Fyfe.

"Hi-Tech welcomes highly demanding and technical challenges from our customers, because it helps us continually raise the bar and enables us to bring on new technologies that help us grow with our customers' needs," says Fyfe.

One of the company's customers requested help in reducing the weight of its product, as well as the cycle time, in order to be able to compete globally. "Through our collaboration, we took a large part running a 50-second cycle, to a part that weighed 35% less and now runs at a 27-second cycle," said Fyfe.

The company provides in-house design to help customers achieve the best design for manufacturability. Beginning at the concept stage of part development, Hi-Tech promotes close teamwork at all levels by linking the design engineer with the resin supplier and its own in-house engineering, mold making, and processing personnel. Partnering toward a common goal at this early stage allows Hi-Tech's engineers to anticipate and prevent potential manufacturing issues before they occur. Information obtained early in the development cycle is used to manufacture custom tools that are designed for optimum manufacturability of the part, as well as part-to-part repeatability in production. Hi-Tech combines sophisticated CAD/CAM technology with CNC milling, boring, and electrical discharge machining (EDM) to design and build close-tolerance molds for all types of engineering resins.

Monday, July 3, 2006
Article from Job Shop Technology Magazine
"Injection Molding Delivers Lighter, Lower-Cost Parts for Aircraft"

Hi-Tech Mold & Tool, a custom injection molder based in Pittsfield, Mass., recently announced that it will supply high-strength, engineered plastic injection-molded valves to Hamilton Sundstrand for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Certified to ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100 standards, Hi-Tech Mold & Tool employs net-shape molding and secondary machining to achieve stringent dimensional and surface finish requirements. Parts manufactured by the company include plastic components and assemblies for air-handling systems in large commercial and regional jets, as well as military fighters.

"Most of what we do are valves or valve components," says Dave Pellegrino, Hi-Tech's engineering and tool room manager. The company also molds components such as water collectors, which Pellegrino describes as a "static type" of product that takes in wet air and expels dry air.

The Hamilton Sundstrand award is the largest aerospace contract ever awarded to Hi-Tech, which estimates the value of the work at $11 million over the duration of the program. For each aircraft, Hi-Tech will build and deliver approximately 18 different valves that are essential to operating "one of the most sophisticated environmental control systems on a commercial airline," according to the company.

"This contract helps Hi-Tech's products to gain a foothold in the commercial aircraft sector, which is always looking for new ways to remove weight from aircraft," said William Kristensen, president, in a statement announcing the award. "Our high strength is working with engineered plastic resin products to provide a lightweight solution to the biggest new commercial aircraft program the industry is likely to see for some time to come."

In competing with other companies from around the world to secure the award, Hi-Tech scored points for using new engineered resins to reduce weight, as well as the cost to build and maintain the product. The materials that will be used to mold the valves are described by Pellegrino as "high-strength, high-temperature, chemical-resistant thermoplastics."

Hi-Tech has developed a reputation for using highly-engineered, carbon- and glass fiber-reinforced resins, such as polyetherketone (PEK), polyetherimide (PEI), and polyphenylenesulfide (PPS), to mold strong, lightweight parts that combine static dissipation with resistance to high heat and corrosion. The company's engineering and design team has worked extensively with customers' complex product designs to "ensure the best design for manufacturability," according to Ann Fyfe, who handles sales, marketing, and customer care.

"Most of the products that we've done are metal-to-plastic replacements," says Fyfe. "Working closely with the customer and resin supplier, we achieve quality parts with weight reduction and lower costs. Hi-Tech is a full-service supplier, so we take projects from design to final assembly, all here at our facility."

As JST went to press, Hi-Tech's work on the Dreamliner program was well under way. "We've already built a number of molds for the program," said Pellegrino. "From a tooling standpoint, we're about 25% [complete]. Tooling for the entire program is projected to be completed by Q1 '07. Some of the molded products are currently going through first-article inspection, and we're going to be doing the first batch of assemblies in about a month."

For aerospace/defense applications, Hi-Tech typically competes with firms that manufacture die castings, or steel and aluminum castings. Because Hi-Tech's manufacturing processes are new to these markets, it's often necessary to educate potential customers about the benefits of injection-molding lighter, lower-cost plastic parts for these applications. But by fully discussing the advantages and potential limiting factors of using injection-molded engineering plastics, customers may find that the limiting factors are not so limiting after all.

"A plastic component is not going to withstand the same types of temperatures and pressures that a metal component will, but typically, it's not necessary," says Pellegrino. "Also, extremely tight tolerances may not be achieved without machining. Hi-Tech works with its customers to create a very near net shape, and will then machine the part to tolerance."

As it looks to expand its share of the aerospace/defense market, Hi-Tech sees the Hamilton Sundstrand contract as a significant turning point, says Kristensen. It's an opportunity, he says, "to develop as a center of excellence for a completely new product range, possibly leading to additional business on other major commercial and military aircraft programs."

The company provides custom molded parts to numerous industries besides aerospace/defense, including the medical, general industrial, telecommunications, and electronics segments. Hi-Tech also makes parts for the recreational, food service, and automotive industries. The firm has presses ranging from 20 to 500 tons in clamp force, a class 100,000 clean room for medical manufacturing, and a full secondary operations department for machining, assembly, flow and pressure testing, decorating, insulating, painting/coating, and finishing..

Sunday, March 26, 2006
"Molding the shape of an industry. Plastics trade enjoys an economic rebound"
Click here for JPG version or click here for PDF version of The Berkshire Eagle Business Outlook 2006 story.

Friday, January 20, 2006.
"Hi-Tech to Supply Molded Valves for Boeing 787"

Hi-Tech Mold & Tool, the Pittsfield-based custom injection molding specialist, today announced that it will supply high-strength engineered plastic injection molded valves to Hamilton Sundstrand for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Hi-Tech estimates the value of the work over the life of the program at $11 million, its largest aerospace award ever. Hamilton Sundstrand is a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).

Hi-Tech competed with other companies from around the world and secured the win with its expertise and innovation by utilizing new engineered resins to reduce weight and the cost to build and maintain the product.

William Kristensen, Hi-Tech President, said: "This contract helps Hi-Tech's products to gain a foothold in the commercial aircraft sector, which is always looking for new ways to remove weight from aircraft. Our high strength is working with engineered plastic resin products to provide a lightweight solution to the biggest new commercial aircraft program the industry is likely to see for some time to come is very exciting."

"This also marks a significant turning point for Hi-Tech, giving us the opportunity to develop as a center of excellence for a completely new product range, possibly leading to additional business on other major commercial and military aircraft programs", added Kristensen.

Hi-Tech will build and deliver approximately 18 different valves per aircraft to operate what will be one of the most sophisticated environmental control systems on a commercial airline.

Hi-Tech employs approximately 90 people in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and expects to exceed 100 in 2006.