Plastic Solutions Blog

VMT Plastic has made a significant investment in its manufacturing capacity by acquiring two new 1,300-ton injection moulding machines.

With these additions, the company’s injection moulding capacity increases by 32%, opening new opportunities for producing large, technically precise plastic components and for incorporating recycled materials into more demanding applications.

“We want to meet our customers’ growing demand for larger and technically advanced plastic components,” says CEO Marja Haapanen.

More Capacity and Flexibility with New Injection Moulding Machines

VMT Plastic has added two new 1,300-ton injection moulding machines designed to meet a broad range of customer needs across product sizes and applications.

The first machine is optimised for technically precise parts of around five kilograms, where dimensional accuracy and material versatility are key.

“Our aim was to cover the range between 700- and 1,300-ton machines while ensuring excellent technical precision,” explains Product Development Manager Ville Mäkinen.

The second machine is designed for larger components weighing around 10 kilograms.

“Depending on the raw material, the machine can handle products up to 15 kilograms. Its mould opening and technical features also allow the manufacturing of deep plastic parts,” adds Technical Specialist Heikki Orpana.

Large, High-Precision Components Now Possible

The new injection moulding machines enable the production of covers, housings, protective parts and technically demanding tank-like components that combine dimensional accuracy, durability and visually high-quality surfaces.

The larger machine, in particular, is well suited for recycled materials and can replace components previously produced using vacuum forming—an advantage for sectors such as machinery manufacturing, equipment industries and environmental construction.

The investment also broadens the company’s ability to process a wide range of technical plastics for large products, enabling additional functional properties such as:

• heat and cold resistance
• electrical conductivity
• flame-retardant properties
• stiffness and strength
• wide colour options

Why Invest Now?

The investment is driven by customer needs and growing market demand. The need for large components made with recycled materials has increased significantly, and this development calls for expanded capabilities.

“Injection moulding is often associated with small, precise components, but its possibilities extend to large-size products as well,” Mäkinen notes.

“This is a natural next step for us. We want to offer our customers the ability to manufacture visible, high-quality components for machinery and equipment,” Orpana adds.

Innovation and Precision: New Sequential Injection System

One of the new machines features a hydraulic sequential injection control system, enabling phase-by-phase moulding. This improves the structural quality of the product and reduces surface defects.

“This allows us to produce large, thin-walled panels with flawless, aesthetically smooth surfaces,” says Orpana.

Injection moulding is also highly cost-efficient—especially for medium and high volumes where tool investments pay off quickly.

Advantages of Injection Moulding for Large Plastic Products

Injection moulding is one of the most versatile and effective manufacturing methods for large plastic components. The process enables:

• tight tolerances and precise joining features
• seamless surfaces and premium visual finish
• integrated snap-fits and fastening structures without additional assembly
• lightweight yet strong constructions

The method allows functional features—such as ribs, grids and reinforcement structures—to be integrated directly into the product without extra cutting or post-processing, resulting in clean, refined and cost-efficient components.

Summary: New Opportunities for Large Plastic Components

With the new injection moulding machines, VMT Plastic strengthens its position as a leading Finnish expert in both technical blow moulding and injection moulding.

The investment increases production capacity, expands raw material options and enables even more tailored large-scale plastic components.

“One conversation can open new possibilities for manufacturing and product development – and these machines turn those possibilities into reality,” summarises CEO Marja Haapanen.

Blow moulding is a cost-efficient and fast manufacturing method for plastic parts that is particularly well suited for the making of container-type pieces, but also of complex and varied plastic products. The cost-efficiency of blow moulding is achieved by the speed of the method, as it only takes a few minutes to make a part. Blow moulding often makes it possible to use recycled materials, which is already part of the core competence of VMT Plastic.

Blow moulding, and the more familiar method of rotational moulding, can often both be used for the making of similar plastic products. The decision of which method to use is often made in the design stage, as the different methods are best suited for different needs. Choosing the best manufacturing method is influenced by several factors.

“These include at least the size, production quantity, material, and of course design of the plastic product to be made. If choosing the manufacturing method gives pause, we will be happy to help,” says VMT Plastic Sales Manager Jere Olkkonen, who encourages designers to get in touch if they would like to hear about alternative manufacturing methods. Making the effort early is worth it, as choosing a different method can achieve significant cost savings.

“Blow moulding is clearly more cost-efficient when making products of certain sizes and in certain quantitities,” says VMT Plastic Production Manager Erkki-Jussi Lahtinen, who emphasises the benefits of choosing blow moulding when the production volumes are in the range of some hundreds to tens of thousands of pieces per year.

“When making suitably sized pieces in this range, blow moulding is almost certainly the most affordable method of manufacturing.”

Mould costs depend on the method of manufacturing

In technical blow moulding, a tubular piece of heated plastic is placed in the product mould. The mould is then closed and air is fed into the tube at a suitable pressure, causing the plastic to compress against the mould. The piece is cooled down, the mould opened, and the piece is ready for finishing.

“Making the moulds needed in the manufacturing of plastic products is often an initial investment,” Olkkonen says.

“The initial costs of blow moulding can be lower than those of for example rotational moulding, as the making of a 50,000-piece batch may only require one mould, whereas in rotational moulding this would require several moulds.”

Functional plastic parts are designed in close partnership

Blow moulding is a precise manufacturing method that is particularly well suited to various rounded shapes with specified wall thicknesses. Blow moulding guarantees seamless and durable products that are excellent for applications such as fuel and hydraulic tanks, air duct systems, and various shields and guards.

The manufacturability and functionality of VMT Plastic products are in a class of their own, as blow moulded products can be made with details such as threads or quick couplers that are compatible with couplers already on the market.

“We are more than just a blow moulding business. Our expertise in injection moulding and assembly makes it possible to produce more complete products, and this is naturally reflected in our turnaround times and costs,” Lahtinen says. The experts at VMT Plastic know well what kinds of shapes and surfaces can be achieved with blow moulding and how products should be designed. Even here, the best results are achieved by teamwork.

“We often like to involve the customer in the design process. We give ideas for developingthe design and capabilities of the product if we can see that small changes would make the product suitable for blow moulding, thereby improving its cost-efficiency and ensuring its quality as well,” Olkkonen says.

VMT Plastic also provides an in-house design service, which assists with drawings and modelling where necessary, avoiding the need to employ third-party design offices.

From wild ideas to finished products

Olkkonen and Lahtinen would like to remind everyone that VMT Plastic has the ability and willingness to work with even relatively wild ideas. No matter what the plan is, it is worth it to contact the people at VMT Plastic.

“Blow moulding makes it possible to create even highly complex plastic products. This means that all kinds of shapes are possible, and the method is very flexible. We enjoy a challenge, but we are also not afraid to let you know if the shape or geometry of your product should be changed or if another method would be better suited for you,” Lahtinen states.

“We want the best for our customers, and one aspect of our customer service is our in-house mould maintenance service, which is top notch. Regular pre-emptive maintenance plays a big role for both machines and moulds.”

When to choose blow moulding by VMT Plastic?

When your product is

VMT Plastic blow moulding is a combination of

Are you looking for a cost-efficient and reliable solution for the manufacturing of demanding container and duct system applications? VMT Plastic has just the solution for you! Technical blow moulding is an automatised production method that enables the cost-effective manufacturing of large batches of container-like plastic products.

Why choose technical blow moulding?

Technical blow moulding is the perfect choice when you require complicated plastic components of the highest quality, such as containers, duct systems, or protective covers. The method guarantees seamless and durable products that are excellent for applications such as fuel and hydraulic tanks, air duct systems, and various shields and guards. We can make anything ranging from small 0.2 litre products up to containers with a volume of 500 litres, all depending on the customer’s needs.

The unique benefits of blow moulding

Technical blow moulding makes it possible to manufacture all kinds of shapes and structures with precision-controlled wall strengths. This guarantees that the products are both light in weight and durable in construction, making them suitable especially for narrow spaces and applications where low weight is an important factor. Blow moulded products are also well capable of withstanding chemical stress and feature the possibility to use many kinds of joiners, such as injection moulded fasteners and metal parts.

A sustainable and environmentally friendly production process

VMT Plastic’s modern blow moulding production employs the latest technology and automatised processes, guaranteeing efficiency and quality. We use plenty of recycled raw materials and can optimise raw resource use according to the customer’s needs, which reduces the environmental impact of the production process.

You are invited to our trade fair stand A618!

Come and meet our experts and take a closer look at the possibilities afforded by blow moulding. At our trade fair stand you can check out samples of the technical products we make and talk to our experts about what we can do to find the best solution for your particular needs. We want to offer you the best added value for your plastic products, whether you are working on a new project or improving an existing product.

Don’t miss out – peek into the world of blow moulding and take a step towards more efficient and sustainable plastic production! See you at the fair!

Book an appointment for a chat with our sales representative!

Many businesses are looking to reduce their carbon footprint and implement concrete actions to achieve lower emissions. More and more enterprises are also wanting to invest in Finnish know-how, and VMT sure has that – after all, almost all of their products are made at Virrat in the Pirkanmaa region of Finland.

“We can help our customers by doing what we do, guaranteed,” says VMT Plastic Sales Manager Jere Olkkonen.

“If the product includes plastic parts, we can provide solutions for reducing your carbon footprint. Using recycled raw materials by itself achieves good things, but the optimisation of raw materials done during product design is just as important.”

The plastic products used by device manufacturers may not have been designed to be optimal plastic products originally, especially if the manufacturing volumes of the product have been smaller at first. As demand increases, it is worthwhile to check if different production methods and updated product designs could make it not only cheaper to make the product, but also more environmentally friendly.
“By stripping down the product design, you can save in terms of raw materials, costs, and emissions. Reducing the carbon footprint often begins with the small things,” Olkkonen emphasises.

“Our goal is not to sell as much plastic as we can. We want instead to help in creating the best possible product using plastic as the material.”

VMT Plastic solutions achieve significant changes

The measurements and forms of presentation associated with carbon footprints are not yet standardised enough to make it possible to give a clear answer to reducing them by means of recycled raw materials. If a company already has in place clear indicators and targets, it is easy for VMT Plastic to calculate and show what using recycled materials and implementing more careful designs could achieve.

“If not, it can however be assumed that we are far ahead and leading the charge in the use of recycled materials,” Olkkonen says.

“Generating exact numbers is a work in progress, but the impact on the carbon footprint can often be determined in a roundabout way. For example, you can calculate the benefits of reducing the volume of used raw materials by 30 percent by coming up with a new design. If no recycled raw materials have been used before, and only recycled raw materials are used moving forward, it is possible to quickly understand that the net impact is fully positive,” Olkkonen summarises.

More and more information is being required in Europe about the carbon footprints of products. Many large corporations are committed to for example the Science Based Targets or SBT indicators. These corporations have a clear mission to prevent to worst impacts of climate change, and they often require their suppliers to make similar commitments.

“I believe that many businesses are under pressure to get their suppliers to implement concrete measures. VMT Plastic is so far ahead here that we can provide ready-made solutions,” Olkkonensays.

Utilising recycled raw materials is worthwhile

Olkkonen wants to shake businesses into thinking about the manufacturing methods and materials of their plastic products, even if the component itself were not the most critical as measured by for example price. Plastic can also be used to replace more difficult materials, because metals for instance are not emission-free either.

“It may be that a plastic component made of recycled plastic is clearly better than, say, a metal part requiring several work stages. If only a few such components are used in a year, it might not be worth it to start making it with plastic. If more components are needed, significant savings potential or positive impacts on responsibility and environmental issues can be achieved by considering the manufacturing technology,” says Olkkonen. He also issues the reminder that VMT Plastic only makes technical components with plastic and no bulk products at all.

“These are plastic products that do not need to picked up on seashores later, and using a technical plastic product may in fact be the best of difficult choices.”

About ten percent of the world’s plastic products are recycled, and only one percent is recycled twice. Thanks to the raw materials they use, VMT Plastic is in that one percent. At the moment, half of the raw materials used by VMT Plastic is recycled, and the goal is to keep this number growing.

“The volumes we use are of course small on the global scale, but each step in the correct direction takes us closer to large-scale change,” Olkkonen states.

From design to assembly – and everything in between

What VMT Plastic does best is design and the production of comprehensive services, manufacturing included.

“We know our raw materials so well that you can get the most of us by involving us as early as in the design stage of the product. In this way, we can help in choosing the right recycled materials and ensure that the product design is the best overall,” Olkkonen explains.

VMT Plastic can help its customers with assembly too after the manufacturing is complete, providing the customer with a fully completed product package.

“This means that the customer does not have to screw, drill, and adjust dozens of components into one, but we will do all of this on their behalf at Virrat instead.

Olkkonen reminds everyone that the skills and vision of VMT Plastic are at the disposal of all customers.

“You can let us worry about the design, manufacturing, and assembly of plastic components,” Olkkonen concludes.

Known for its high-quality plastic products, VMT Plastic has been expanding its service offering towards assembly over the recent years. In addition to wanting to gain a better foothold, this move is motivated by the desire to help customers with solving their problems.

“VMT Plastic has always been something of an engineering company,” says Sales Manager Ville Mäkinen. “We have always liked brainstorming and planning ways of helping our customers with finding solutions to their problems.”

When it comes to assembly, it is extremely important to know the customer’s operating environment and understand where the product, final assembly, or component assembly is going. Most assembly works are quite simple, which is one reason why it is worthwhile to outsource them.

“The customer completing all assembly stages inhouse and storing the required components might not increase the value of their end product. From the perspective of VMT Plastic, things look different – being able to offer assembly services improves the added value of our own products too,” Mäkinen says.

Extensive partnership is reflected in the Avant Tecno fuel tank

VMT Plastic can help their customers extensively in component procurement, competitive tendering, and planning as well, known collectively as sourcing. One customer making use of the broad service offering is the Finnish multi-functional loader maker Avant Tecno.

At first, VMT Plastic only manufactured a fuel tank for Avant Tecno. The tank cap had a key lock mechanism, and the vehicle itself had its own key. This two-key system sounded unnecessarily complicated to Mäkinen.

“We proposed that we could take our partnership further and source a new cap for them. The cap was also serialised to be usable with the cabin key, thus getting rid of one of the keys. So, we built an assembly component for our customer that was fully customised to their needs,” Mäkinen summarises.

Avant Tecno was also able to reduce their overgrown inventory with the extended partnership.

“If you have a thousand products in store with ten attached components each, you need a massive warehouse. Multiply this by the number of products you have, and your inventory is bound to balloon. With our assistance, the customer was able to remove excessive components from their facilities, which impacts their inventory budget too,” Mäkinen reports.

Assembly works to ensure customer satisfaction

By outsourcing the assembly stage, the customer is thus able to focus their core competencies on their specific product without having to spend time and resources on the for them less important process of putting components together. Taking over the assembly process also eliminates any challenges the customer may have had in combining the components with the plastic product made by VMT Plastic.

“When we combine the required components ourselves, we can solve any issues in an agile way as part of our own production process. This allows us to get right to the root of the problem, ensuring that the customer receives a fully functional product,” Mäkinen points out.

“It thus makes sense, even from a quality control perspective, to combine all components as early as possible before shipping products to the customer.”

Good communication is the foundation of effective partnerships

Mäkinen encourages customers to make use of VMT Plastic in product development as well.

“The customer may be developing something like a fuel tank, and they are trying to come up with a suitable attachment component. Instead of spending time on this, they could just let us handle the problem,” Mäkinen says.

“It is important that information travels well between us and the customer. When the threshold for discussions is low, problems rarely appear.”

Partnership projects are particularly pleasant for Mäkinen, who sees himself as a customer service operator more than anything else.

“Our partnership with a customer deepens when we can submit more complete assemblies and get the opportunity to do our work in the best possible way at the same time.”

Read more about our partnership with Avant Tecno.