SteelPLUS is a Portuguese mold maker for plastic injection with over 22 years of experience in the market. They are a team of highly experienced and qualified technicians and have the most advanced technologies that allow them to design and make any type of injection mold, for the automotive, aeronautic, medical & health, houseware, piping, and electronic industries, among others.
Currently SteelPLUS exports molds for 15 countries in 4 different continents.
The clients are SteelPLUS’ focus: they offer cycle guarantees, excellent after-sales service, and can travel to the customer’s facilities at any stage of the project (including tool start-up).
You can actually explore the company’s facilities for yourself in the 360º Virtual Tour. You can find this tour on www.steelplus.pt.
Interview with Luís Lima, CEO of SteelPLUS.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Luís Lima: The automotive sector is definitely the main segment in our company – about 50% of our activity. We also work heavily with the packaging industry, the medical and cosmetics industries and the electronics industry.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
L.L: Our main focus are steel molds for plastic injection. There are numerous types of molds, but ultimately this is up to our clients since the mold is completely custom to the client’s needs.
We do also offer a wide range of services, from CNC machining (with 3 and 5 axes machines) to dimensional control (CMM) and spark and wire EDM.
The news is we are setting up a clean room to manufacture molds that require to be built under specific conditions such as needed for the medical and cosmetic industries. We are very excited about it!
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
L.L: As we have mentioned before, we focus on custom steel molds for plastic injection. Additionally, we do offer services that are part of the mold construction process such as CNC machining, EDM (spark and wire), and CMM controlling.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
L.L: The markets we currently are in are still recovering however, we can feel that they are slowly picking up. We notice the most changes in the cosmetic and medical sectors since we have felt an increase in orders, compared to the last few years.
The market we would say slowed down the most, at least for us, would be the automotive sector. Although we strongly believe it will pick up after this period of indecision.
However, as SteelPLUS is a global brand with business all over the world, we expect a continuous increase in our overall growth, year after year.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
L.L: We would say, some of the latest trends are intricate tools with sensors that provide detailed information about the mold to the operator. Besides this, we believe fast cycles and optimization of the precision system will be a constant need due to the market’s own demand particularly in the cosmetic, medical, electronics and military/defense industries.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
L.L: At SteelPLUS we are experts at manufacturing molds for threaded parts as well as bi-injection molds (2K & 3k).
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2023?
L.L: For 2023, we are optimistic about the investments we have made recently (new machinery, factory plant increase – among others), and we are 100% focused on our clients and to keep on doing better.
If you have any further questions or have a quotation request, please forward them to the email: comercial@steelplus.pt. Our sales team will get back to you shortly.
