company profile
niche markets such as Marine, R&D, Military/Defense and Medical Instrumentation, the company remains somewhat insulated and is projecting a ramp up in Q2 through year end. Our major customers in the marine industry such as Hydroid, Teledyne/RD Instruments and Sontek/YSI are all reporting strong sales for 2009 and there is much new product development going on within these companies. What is your impression of business prospects in the subsea industry? FD Polymer Marine is very excited about new business prospects in the sub-sea industry. Many of the potential customers we meet at trade shows are familiar with the casting process, and some are even doing it in-house to create their own functional prototypes. However, in general, they lack the expertise necessary to take it to the next level to support on-going production with high-quality parts. Also, because most products in this market tend to be fairly complex and have low production requirements, many companies feel compelled to go the machining route, often at great expense. Liquid Resin Casting can provide a cost-effective alternative in these instances. Tooling for this process requires a pattern or "master" from which silicone rubber molds are made for casting the parts. In many cases we can utilize a customer's original machined part as the master, and replicate parts from that. This can significantly reduce start-up costs and lead times. How is your company investing today to prepare for
future business? FD Polymer is investing in the development of new materials, equipment and processes to prepare for future business. Based on customer feedback, some of our current initiatives include developing specialized materials that are better-suited for X-ray attenuation, high voltage, high temperature, and flame retardancy. For one of our marine customers requiring superior reflective characteristics for an underwater optical instrument they were developing, we recently formulated a polyurethane blend that exceeded their expectations. With the financial backing of Prospect Partners, we are moving ahead with plans to expand our capabilities for rapid prototyping and also to produce larger parts more cost-effectively. This will happen most likely through acquisitions and alliances that will come to fruition this year. Recognizing that it is imperative to help our customers reduce their lead time to market, we are also developing additional tooling resources to ensure this. What do you count as the biggest challenge today to Polymer Corporation? FD The biggest challenge Polymer faces today is anticipating and responding to its customers' ever-changing needs in a turbulent economic climate. Most of our customers, especially the larger ones like Teledyne, are looking to down-size their vendor base. We feel the more that we can offer them in terms of process and service capabilities, the better we can position ourselves as a key supplier to ensure long-term relationships.
Case Study: Teledyne Webb Research
Recently, Polymer Marine tooled up to produce a Tail Cone for Teledyne Webb Research of Falmouth, Massachusetts using its Liquid Resin Casting process. This part is used on the Webb Slocum Underwater Glider, along with a Fin and Rudder also made by Polymer. The Tail Cone casting replaces a previous version that was being manufactured via a fiberglass lay up process which resulted in parts having wide dimensional variations. This caused problems for Webb during their assembly of the unit to mating parts. In addition to dimensional instability, the unfavorable cosmetics inherent with the lay-up process necessitated painting the parts as a secondary. A variety of tooling options can be utilized for the LRC process depending on the specific part geometry and tolerance requirements for a given application. For the Tail Cone project, a combination of silicone molds and metal cores are used which allows for casting a very complex shape with excellent cosmetics and tolerance control. This eliminates the need for Webb to do secondary painting and rework during assembly. High-strength, Shore D-79 polyurethane was chosen for this part which is proven to be conducive to the marine environment, and durable enough to withstand the rigors that a vehicle such as the Slocum Glider is subjected to.
24 MTR May 2009
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