The mark Engineering & Tooling from Portugal improves to the sector of the mould luso

The Portuguese moulds are archiconocidos in the international field by his quality, precision, reliability and capacity of innovation. After this success find crowd of companies, of distinct sizes and capacities but that, however, are joined by a common aim: improve even more the ‘mark' Portuguese and show in front of his customers like a ‘partner' in all the chain of value. They do not manufacture only moulds, offer integral solutions. Like this they transmitted it the different companies that plastic Universal Interempresas could visit accompanied of managers of Poolnet, the clúster that works to promote the sector of the mould of Portugal and his auxiliary industry, promoting the mark Engineering Tooling from Portugal.

The regions of Marinha Big and Oliveira of Azeméis concentrate the greater part of companies of the sector and are historically tied: if the first was cream to take advantage of the synergies of the industry of the glass of this zone, the second initiated his career of the hand of the brother of the that is considered the first moldista Portuguese, pioneer and innovative Anibal Abrantes.Precisely the innovation, together with a methodical investment in high technology and a strict control of quality are some of the ingredients of this industry. “Price, terms and quality, with this strengthen to the customers”, affirm miscellaneous of the industrial visited. And it is true. Japanese machines, German, Swiss, Italian and some Spaniard —of 3 and 5 axles, models of high speed and others more conventional— conviven in the different installations visited to endow of the necessary resources to the operarios, beside an important program of management of tools and automation. And each 3-5 years of average renews part of the park of machinery: “Be to the last in technology allows to reduce costs and time. The customer buys time of cycle and guarantee, no only product”. This happens also for betting by machines multifuncionales that will allow to reduce the time of production and, in consequence, the final cost to the customer.

The most paradigmatic case in technological update perhaps represents it one of the installations of Marinha Big, where, of the two pavilions of production that they have, one is totally automated, without more employees that the engineers of programming, with a section to temperature controlled and a system of management in network that allows to any employee of the company know in which phase finds the production.

However investment and innovation are not it everything. Something has to distinguish to these professionals that has cost them the international recognition. “We know to improvise, innovar on the fly and take fast decisions”, affirmed the representative of one of the most important companies, with headquarters in Marinha Big but also international presence. “Perhaps we are not very good scheduling but know to react quickly in front of the new challenges”, added. And it is that each day supposes a new challenge for these professionals.

In general, so much in Marinha Big like Oliveira of Azeméis finds a wide diversity of companies, with turnovers that oscillate between the 2 and the 104 million euros in 2012 —very positive respecto 2011—. And of sizes very diverse, from SMEs until multinationals that, however, share a same philosophy: maximum quality and high tecnificación in his products, already are moulds of minimum tolerances for electronic devices or medical equipment, until big pieces of 40, 80 or 120 tonnes for doors and bumper of car or big containers.

Conscious of the needs of his customers —the experience is, in his case, a baza very important— the industry of Portuguese moulds knows to endow of the most advanced technology to fulfil with the expectations. Compete in price is not an option by what his potential diferenciador is to know accompany to the customer in all the chain of production. From realizar the initial design beside the customer going through the development of the mould, the exhaustive control of quality until the final delivery. But his capacity goes further and, thanks to the work of coordination of the cluster Poolnet, these companies can share and collaborate to offer an integral solution to the project of the customer. That is the value added differential with regard to the Asian competition “that reduced us the international market, especially the one of EE UU”, explains us an employer that carries more than 40 years in the brecha, “having surpassed several crises, although any like this”.

Another of the aims of the companies at present is to reduce his dependency with regard to the sector of the automotive sector: of the visited, almost the whole work between the 50 and 80% for this industrial state. “Our aim —explained a representative of a signature of Oliveira of Azeméis— is to reduce the percentage devoted to the automotive sector and deliver the production among others important sectors for us as they are the furniture of garden and the packaging”. Other sectors in which they move these companies are electronic, appliances and white line, bottles of glass… Diversify to reduce the risk. Of the same way, these companies are expanding his countries of destination, with some figures of export that rondan 90% in the majority of the cases. “Have a Portuguese customer that represents 5% of my turnover —admitted one of the employers of Marinha Big—, the rest, is everything for export”. An affirmation that repeated in almost the whole of the companies visited, what comes to show the good health of which enjoys the sector.

For this are always attentive to the new opportunities. Sample of this is the project initiated by one of the companies of Marinha Big: no only they manufacture the mould but they commission also of the production of capsules for coffees exprés. A project that, again, has supposed them an important reconversion of the installations to offer the maximum efficiency.

In this sense, it is necessary to underline also that, each company has gone specialising in his area to give coverage to different types of demand. Like this, we can find from companies specialists in spark-erosion, until one of the few that offer electrochemical processes that allow to increase the shine in the resultant product or mechanised by plasma. Of the same way, the majority of the companies are prepared to produce moulds for products bimaterial, with textures, colours and different characteristics.