Danish tool expertise steps forward at Elmia Subcontractor

The toolmaking industry lacks important skills in many areas as more and more people demand local production of form tools. In Denmark, however, they have succeeded well in training future toolmakers, and for Idé-Pro it is a matter of course to work close to the school to secure future competence.

- We want to do everything we can to make it attractive for young people to work in this industry as toolmakers and injection moulders, says Morten Frandsen, sales director.

In-house tool manufacturing is an important part of the business, where around 25 tools are manufactured in-house a week to supply incoming projects.

- It is very important for us to be able to manufacture our tools ourselves so that we control the entire process. We help our customers shorten the lead time from idea to prototype and finished product, hence the name Idé-Pro, says Håkan Andersson Key Account Manager.

Celebrating 30 years as a company - and 25 years at Elmia Subcontractor

The Danish-Swedish company Idé-Pro has headquarters and production in Skive, Denmark. The Swedish sales office is in Gothenburg and they also have salespeople in Germany as well as a tech office in Bangalore, India, where they work with tool design, CAD calculation and mold flow. This year the company celebrates its 30th anniversary.

- And we have been an exhibitor at Elmia Subcontractor for at least the last 25 years. It is a very good fair for us where we build strong relationships with many of our Swedish customers, says Morten Frandsen.

Håkan Andersson agrees:

- Elmia Subcontractor is a hub that gathers subcontractors in all technical areas of the industry and very many of our customers come here. It is an important meeting place for us.

Northern Europe's largest independent injection molding machine

Prototypes and low-series production in plastics and light metal are the core business. On the die casting side, they work with materials such as zinc, magnesium and aluminium. If we are talking about injection molding, Idé-Pro can produce really large plastic parts with weights up to 41.5 kg.

- We have injection molding machines with clamping force from 7 tons up to 4,000 tons. Idé-Pro has Northern Europe's largest stand-alone injection molding machine. There are not many prototype manufacturers that have such a broad range of technologies as we do, says Håkan.

An important part of the business is the in-house compounding.

- We take care of our waste material and compound it ourselves into recycled raw material that we can use in new products. We also have our own lab for material tests and material verification, says Martin Svensson Randsalu, Area Manager Sweden.

Caption: For the 25th year in a row, Idé-Pro exhibits at Elmia Subcontractor. "It is an important meeting place for us and our customers."