Based in Totnes, Devon, Amtek specialises in making plastic injection mould tools and undertaking high-precision CNC machining at its 21,000ft² facility, where it has recently invested in equipment that allows it to ‘go large’ (www.amtekplastics.co.uk).

High-precision multi-cavity injection mould tools for producing ‘caps and closures’ are the mainstays of Amtek, which has a plant list that includes a Mikron HSM 400 machining centre with a robotic pallet loader, a Mikron Graphite Master machining centre with a 65,000rev/min spindle and a robotic pallet loader (this has allowed Amtek to switch from copper to predominantly graphite EDM electrodes for its die-sink machines), and a Mazak Integrex multi-axis mill-turn centre.

One of Amtek’s typical fully assembled mould tools with 96 impressions might weigh up to five tonnes, which was the maximum the company could handle in its workshop.

The team at Amtek took the decision to increase its material-handling capacity to eight tonnes so that it could produce larger tools.

Production manager Mike Lawes said: “This means we can offer larger tools with up to 128 impressions. The cycle time for a tool is typically 6sec, which equates to 1 million cycles a year — or an extra 33 million parts from the larger tool.”

Amtek says tool longevity is vital to its customers, so it becomes second nature to the company’s staff to check and re-check everything. “We have tools in the market that have completed more than 30 million cycles.

“You don’t achieve that level of reliability by accident; you have to add quality at every step of the mould tool’s manufacture.”