Delivering high-performance advanced moulding technology Goodway Plastic

DELIVERInG HIGH-PERFoRManCE

aDVanCED-MouLDInG TECHnoLoGIEs

Goodway Plastic is a global leader in the development and manufacture of small, high-precision plastic components for a broad range of industries. Philip Yorke talked to Stanley Yip, the company’s CEO, about its major investment in new plant and cutting-edge micro-moulding robotics technologies.

Goodway Plastic is a family-owned private business that was founded in Hong Kong more than 40 years ago. The company has seen consistent growth since it was established and this success is based upon its flexibility, high quality products and ability to offer a ‘one-stop shop’ service to its clients. Goodway is one of the very few companies in its field to be equipped with all the various moulding processes, including tooling, moulding, multi-material moulding, clean-room painting, vacuum metallising and ultrasonic welding as well as many other individual processes. Niche market expertise

In order to differentiate its services and products in a highly competitive market, the company decided to focus on providing a bespoke service that catered for customers requiring high-precision plastic components in addition to a dedicated design and R&D service. This gives them the unique opportunity to develop original solutions to today’s complex plastic moulding challenges. The company has also established a wide range of individual business units that focus on key markets such as acoustics, hearing aids, CCTV, currency detec-

tors and sensors. These specialised business units allow Goodway to invest more resources in these growing niche markets.

Today Goodway is a high-tech partner to companies that offer solutions to improve customers’ products, as well as helping them to develop new ones. The company prefers to get involved at an early stage of any project as it can then leverage its considerable expertise to the client’s best advantage.

Advanced robotics

Goodway Plastic sees robotics as the future for manufacturing companies as they are increasingly more intelligent, and today modern robotics are capable of tasks that even a few years ago were not considered possible. Goodway has therefore started working with the leading company in this sector, Universal Robots, in order to develop a variety of concepts and fixtures and to complete some secondary processes that streamline its production processes. In addition to its increasing use of robotics, the company develops new mechanical concepts and secondary processes, which in turn helps to increase the opportunities for reduced ‘time-to-market’ parameters.

Yip said, “The components that we produce for our Acoustic customers are a good example of how our expertise can enhance these

advanced micro-products to offer them greater reliability, improved design and compactness. Our high-precision parts for these items are very small and have to conform to strict and precise tolerances.

“In addition, these products benefit from better water and airsealing properties and protection against accidental shock, because they are robust and more durable thanks to our unrivalled advanced moulding technology. What is more, before we embark on a new project, we need to evaluate what the customer wants to achieve and to fully understand their engineering technology. This way we can make a positive contribution and be able to validate any new materials and plastic components involved.

“We also have a very big material database as a result of our 40 years’ experience in this area and are therefore able to share this valuable information with our customers to their advantage. Today we are only focused on small and medium sized plastic parts and are the market leaders in the development and manufacture of small, high-precision parts for the European market.

“As a one-owner family business, we have all the plastic moulding solutions at our fingertips – including ultrasonic welding and advanced robotic technologies – and we strive to offer our clients the fastest and most efficient product solutions. In order to improve our customer services yet further we have recently made a major investment in new plant at our existing facilities in China, which is only a two-hour drive from Hong Kong. Here we have installed over 30 electric moulding machines in the first phase with more machines being added in the second. There will not be any operators required in our new moulding halls as the majority of the work is carried out by high-precision robotics.

“Currently we have more than 1400 employees located in Hong Kong and China and our modern tooling shop has over 200 technicians that are responsible for over 150 sets of the latest injection moulding machines.” n

For further details of Goodyear Plastic’s innovative products and services visit: www.goodway.com.hk