Plastics & Rubber World - May/June 2019 - 19

ireland

At Trend Technologies, Jonathan Kiernan confirms the prevalence of smaller
machines in the Irish market. "We have
45 injection moulding machines on the
shop floor, with a range of sizes up to 650
tonnes. We have the capability to produce
larger parts, but once you factor in logistics costs for those components it still has
to be an acceptable business case."
At the Mullingar plant, Trend offers a
series of production options, including
2K, two-shot moulding. At other locations,
such as the plant in Slovakia, the company
delivers parts for vehicle manufacturers
with production sites in the region.
Bucking the trend for smaller injection
moulding machines, JFC primarily uses
extrusion machines and rotational moulders. These are used to deliver large-diameter piping products and other product
ranges in the company portfolio, including
ocean marker buoys.
"We use our rotational moulding know
how to produce the buoys, using our own
foam filling," says John Concannon. "We've
expanded the range to include data collection buoys. These are located 50 or 100
miles off shore, to collect and transmit information about weather, water temperature, wind speed, via a satellite uplink."
He goes on to say that while the basic
buoys are "not too expensive", the electronic kit can quickly increase the value, in
some cases reaching €150,000 for a single
unit. Other products include a calving crib
and calf feeders. These also include builtin electronics, but these are developed
in-house. While they might appear to be
seasonal products, Concannon says that
different markets have different schedules. For example, French farmers have a
second round of calving in the autumn to
support winter milk production.

clean room production at trend technologies
company has recently finalised the purchase of a diamond blade manufacturer
in France. "The diamond-tipped blades are
used for cutting concrete and asphalt," he
explains. With the medical plastics hub of
Galway just a short drive down the newly-extended M17 motorway, would he ever
consider jumping into that market?
"We probably should be at it, but you
cut your cloth to measure," he says.

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The prevalence of medical moulding in Ireland can be directly traced to investment
by large, multinational companies moving
into the country and, as time advanced,
other smaller operations joining in to offer further flexibility in both development
and production.
But plastics has always been part of
the Irish industrial landscape, says Jonathan Kiernan. "Trend Technologies started out producing computer cases and
then moved on to printer shells when the
computer manufacturers moved to China.
Those printer companies also moved out,
so medtech essentially filled the vacuum."
With the addition of automotive, the
company has deliberately looked to diversify its offering. That said, medtech and
life science is still core, as highlighted by
a recent €3m round of investment which
supported the addition of new equipment
and clean rooms. "It's a Class 10,000 [ISO
7] clean room," says Kiernan. "We do a lot
of wound care products and you need to
have that capability."
At JFC, John Concannon reports that the

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Plastics & Rubber World - May/June 2019

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