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CTMA HOSTS VISIT FROM KOREAN ASSOCIATION

On November 3rd, the Canadian Tooling & Machining Association (CTMA) hosted a delegation from the JeonBuk Association for Mold & Die Industry, South Korea. Robert Cattle, from the CTMA, and Wendy Stark, from the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation (WEEDC), hosted the delegation during their visit to Windsor, Ontario, Canada which included tours of four CTMA member companies.


Please find below the visit report provided by Robert Cattle:

The day started early as we were met by Michael Catauro of the Narmco Group for a tour of their Prince Metal Products division. We were shown a very diverse stamping operation which manufactures all sorts of products for the automotive industry, from small, complex components to extremely large parts made by progressive dies with "in-die" transfer systems. It was an extremely interesting tour and everyone was impressed with the quality of the products and systems.

As we travelled to Mega Mold International, our focus changed from metal stamping to injection moulding. After being met our host David Thibert and his team, the group was shown the production of large moulds, mainly used in the automotive industry. They also observed the team at Mega Mold qualifying two new large capacity 5-Axis CNC machines that had just been delivered the previous week. This very impressive facility has been steadily growing since they moved to their present location just two years ago and it is great to see how their hard work and efforts are paying off.

In the afternoon, we continued our plastic injection moulding theme and made our way to Cavalier Tool & Manufacturing Ltd. We were greeted by our host Tim Galbraith who took the time to show us their extremely impressive facility. Owner and visionary Brian Bendig has been working on a multi-year plan to invest in the latest technology that is available worldwide and has put together a team of skilled employees that use their knowledge and the machine's capabilities to produce high quality injection moulds for all types of customers. They are currently building an expansion to their current facility, which was well under way when we visited them. Our guests were extremely impressed to see what the team at Cavalier is providing to their customers.

From there we travelled back into the heart of Windsor for a tour of J & C Tool & Die Ltd., where we were met by our host, Richard Janik. Richard is not only one of the owners of this company, but is a member of the CTMA's Board of Directors as well as being the Windsor Chapter's Chairman. J & C Tool & Die is a well-established company that was started 60 years ago and is now in its second generation of ownership. It is an extremely busy shop building dies and machining components for a diverse customer base. Richard showed the group through this impressive facility which features a mix of brand new CNC machines as well as some high precision manual machines that are still needed for custom machining purposes. The group was impressed with the number of try-out presses and general quality of the tools and parts that were being processed.

The following day, Wendy Stark met the group at the Windsor Economic Development Corporation office for a quick tour which was followed by a tour of St. Clair College and the Ford Centre of Excellence in Manufacturing.

May Cho, Korean Mold Association translator, told us that the Korean delegation was very appreciative of the kind hospitality and excellent arrangements that were made for their visit and they learned a lot of things about high technology and the industry in the Windsor area.

All in all, I think that it was a very successful collaboration, where we were able to showcase some world-class Canadian companies to Korean delegation. They, in turn could see that these companies, many in their second or third generation of ownership, have been able to succeed, expand and adapt to the changing world of manufacturing.

I believe that in this age of global manufacturing it is extremely important to explore all avenues that may help contribute to a company's success and it is my hope that by opening dialogue with other associations it allows conversations to begin and business relationships to flourish.

Rob Cattle – CTMA Executive Director