Pulling all the right strings
Research and development
Pultron Composites specialises in the design of high-performance rods, springs and small cavity profiles.
Mr Holdsworth views research and development as simply a matter of survival. "The business has always been very research orientated – we are almost a research organisation. If we give up on research we won't be able to move on and develop the technology and retain customers."
He says that this attitude reflects the variety and growth of his customers' requirements. "Many pultrusion applications have demanding technical issues which need to be addressed. The specifications for structural profiles of most materials are becoming more and more specific to the required duty, and pultrusions – in some instances – are a cost effective option." With research and development so crucial to the success of the business, Mr Holdsworth dedicates up to 15 per cent of turnover and a team of 15-20 physicists, material scientists, programmers, mechanical and electrical engineers, and fitters to refining the production process and product finishing, and finding ways to adapt pultrusions for new uses. You might think he would need to locate such a specialised manufacturing business in a large centre, but he says he has had no problems attracting the broad cross-section of skills required to Gisborne. In addition, he has been able to draw on the solid base of engineering-orientated skills in the district to help keep the business thriving.
Pultron Composites divides its research into four areas. A mechanical research department is equipped with CNC equipment, which engineers use to design and build the specialist shaping and altering machines that manufacture each type of pultrusion, while the die and tooling department develops the specialised tooling required to manufacture the pultruded profiles. The electronics department designs, builds and programs the automated devices that control the manufacturing machines and the production process. A composite materials research laboratory operates an array of test instrumentation, such as a modulated differential scanning calorimeter and a dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer for tensile testing.
