STARTEC Plus may be a new company, but its two directors have a depth of experience in the plastics sector, particularly in relation to the food and beverage industry, that no other local company can match.
Willson Silver and Paul Smith set up Startec Plus earlier this year with the specific focus of servicing the change parts market for New Zealands dynamic food and beverage processing sector. Change parts are the key components of process lines, linking rinsers, fillers, cappers and labellers and include custom-built feedscrews and single or multi-track wear bends.
Not surprisingly Startec Pluss design and manufacturing expertise is in hot demand as marketers continue the drive for new design packaging in beverages and foodstuffs.
In recent years what we have seen is a reversal of control between engineers and marketers, explains Silver. Traditionally it was the engineers who controlled the frequency of change part replacement as each old set wore out and this might have resulted in a new set of change parts per year. But today, with standard shaped bottles, jars, cans and containers no longer acceptable in a marketing sense, its the marketers who dictate the frequency of change, not the engineers, and often the new-design containers present quite a challenge to change part designers and manufacturers like us.
He says the challenges are compounded by the pressures put on by marketers to get new products established, as well as the shortage of good plant engineers and the need to run bottling and canning plants to maximum capacity and efficiency.
The team at Startec Plus regard themselves as problem solvers in a world where often elderly filling machines are required to fill odd new container shapes.
Silver points out that in the old days when perhaps just 18 bottles were being filled per minute, it was possible to jigsaw parts out of plywood and get away with it. But with todays plants running up to 1200 units per minute, and the need to write macro programs that address the bottle shapes verse velocity equation, feed and conveyor systems must be extremely sophisticated. Silver likens it to a 3D game of chess where design is critical and if you get anything wrong you could lose your shirt.
Startec Plus has gone from zero to around 60 percent of local market share in just 12 months, and Silver says that once theyve established themselves in New Zealand, the two year plan is to take on Australia. And already there has been interest from across the Tasman.
Our philosophy at Startec is to challenge everything, says Silver. Treat all existing systems as old technology and aim for greater simplicity and efficiency in our design and implementation.
One of Startecs major claims to fame so far has been its innovative solid modelled can invertor a device that flips cans 180 degrees for date stamping in a fraction of the space required by old wire-based systems. They can also design invertors that flip bottles and cartons.
The company utilises white durable, easy clean polyethylene for its change parts which are both practical and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Silver says this is increasingly important for food and beverage process companies that invite inspection by interested parties, and require strict hygiene standards.
With the highly experienced Steve Lipanovic as its CAD designer, Startec Plus offers full CAD services from concept through design to manufacture and works with a full range of high quality engineering grade plastics including acetal, nylon, UHMWPE, PVC, polypropylene, PETP, peek, polycarbonate, PTFE, and acrylic. It specialises in manufacturing spare parts from supplied samples or drawings for a diverse range of applications.
