Motorola Thermoplastic Composite Smartphone Covers Get Award

 

The thermoplastic composite covers for the new Droid Turbo smartphones from Motorola (U.S. office in Chicago, Ill.) produced with the 3i-tech inductive system developed by France’s RocTool SA (U.S. office in Charlotte, N.C.), won the 2015 JEC Innovation Award in the electronic product category.

            According to Tom Vondrak, sourcing and procurement director for Motorola, the 3i-tech system was critical to Motorola reaching its production and cycle time targets for the Droid Turbo programs. “It allowed us to reach a target capacity of ~50,000 formed parts per day, with minimal tooling investment, while maintaining excellent surface quality and dimensional stability on our formed parts.”

            RocTool’s technologies combine the molding of nylon, polycarbonate, Kevlar and woven glass fibers. With the 3i-tech induction heating technology, inductor coils are directly integrated into steel tools for compression molding processes. Said RocTool’s president Mathieu Boulanger, “RocTool technologies are adapted to high-volume production, particularly in electronics, automotive, luxury cosmetics and other quality oriented products. RocTool’s induction provides an excellent surface quality and a resin rich surface which is a key requirement in electronics housing.” 

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