With a history stretching back almost 100 years, Fontijne Presses has carved for itself a niche in which it excels. The company specialises in manufacturing high-quality laboratory presses that, although small in size, are big on performance. “We build them as small as possible, as where our presses are used, space is usually at a premium,” explained Luc Pattyn, sales and marketing director at Fontijne Presses.
The company focuses exclusively on the manufacture of small-sized platen presses for use in laboratories, research and development facilities, and production environments around the world. Compactly built, these presses can fit almost everywhere.
“We call our range of products ‘laboratory presses’, but they can be used for production – of course they can,” said Luc Pattyn. “They are ideal for small series production, for determining the right parameters and for finetuning these,” he added.
The exclusive focus on presses means that all knowhow and all development work is poured into advancing their capabilities and options. “It is this wealth of experience that differentiates us from our competitors,” said Pattyn. “We’ve been building our expertise for nearly a century, while our competitors have generally only relatively recently entered the field.”
Fontijne Presses has an engineering team that designs all the laboratory presses in-house. The presses themselves are built at the company’s factory in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. “Doing everything ourselves means that customised models specifically tailored to individual demands can also be supplied,” said Pattyn. “And obviously, we also provide service and maintenance for our machines, wherever they are. We collaborate with local suppliers but we also have a team of service engineers that will travel anywhere if necessary. Some minor problems can be dealt with in a phone call, but as we are active in the high-end segment of the market, a fast response is essential. Machines that aren’t running cost money,” Pattyn pointed out. “Preventive maintenance can avoid a lot of these problems.”
The company has also obtained all the certifications required by its customers, including CE, ISO 9001:2015 quality management certification and, most recently ISO 14001, which focuses on environmental management.
This latter certification is tangible evidence of Fontijne Presses’ commitment to enhance sustainability and to make its processes more environmentally friendly. It provides a framework for organisations to continually improve their environmental performance.
It involves evaluating existing environmental policies, identifying the environmental impacts tied to the organization, and implementing strategies to manage or diminish these impacts. This meant that Fontijne Presses needed to demonstrate, beginning with a baseline measurement, that they had implemented an environmental management system complete with measurable objectives and action plans to achieve those goals. Among the goals already successfully reached were a reduction in gas consumption by 70%; the increased use of sustainable energy through the installation of more than 100 solar panels on the roof; and the local sourcing of components to reduce environmental impact. Maintaining compliance with this standard is an ongoing process, with surveillance audits being scheduled annually, and recertification audits every three years.
Testing and samples
The laboratory presses manufactured by Fontijne Presses are designed for compression moulding. One of their main uses is for moulding specimens and samples used for test purposes.
According to Pattyn, the presses are suitable for moulding a wide range of materials, although plastics are the most common. “However, we have a lot of customers who use our presses for developing and testing composites and rubber, as well. I’d say that there’s not a tire manufacturer who doesn’t have one,” he said.
The company serves various different markets, with a product range that reflects this diversified strategy. It is therefore relatively well shielded against the impacts of market highs and lows. That said, the company has noticed the effects of the current geopolitical and economic tensions in the world – budgets are smaller and customers are increasingly waiting to see which way the wind will blow.
Nonetheless, having spread the risks both geographically and in terms of markets, the company is in a good place. “We are not dependent on a single sector or customer. If one sector is not performing well, this tends to be compensated for by the others,” Pattyn noted. “ And of course universities around the world always need this type of equipment for their research work.”
