Grant: CCI Applied Research and Development Grants

Masco Canada, a subsidiary of Masco Corporation, has been inspiring Canadian homes, communities, and lives for over a century. As one of the world's largest manufacturers of brand-name products for home improvement and new home construction markets, Masco is committed to innovation to foster outstanding product development and design excellence. For several years, Masco has used the vacuum thermoforming process, a popular manufacturing method, to produce and deliver high-quality plumbing and bathing products to home and commercial markets. Within this process, an acrylic sheet is heated, then vacuum formed in the desired shape for a bathtub. However, one step of this process requires the application of a composite resin to provide stiffness, impact, resistance, and fire resistance to the installed bathing unit. The resin and acrylic account for 50% of the product's cost. As a result, this is further slowing down the manufacturing process, and costs are only expected to increase. To address this challenge, Masco Canada has partnered with Lambton College's Lambton Manufacturing Innovation Centre (LMIC) and Centre for Industrial Material Development (CIMD) to develop a new material formulation that is more cost-effective and durable for the vacuum-formed bathtub insert production line. Through this collaboration, the research also aims to explore alternative manufacturing processes such as sheet molding compound (SMC) technology and compression molding, promising alternative manufacturing methods for the vacuum thermoforming process. To further support this challenge, Masco Canada and Lambton College will collaborate with Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for Composites Research (FIP-Composites) in London, Ontario, which has expertise in SMC technology. This project's success will lead to reduced production and manufacturing costs and improved performance of Masco's bathing products. This, in turn, will help improve profitability, drive new sales, and secure company jobs, thus making Masco more competitive in the home improvement global market. Specifically, successful implementation will have a positive impact on sales within 6 to 12 months and create 8 to 10 new jobs to operate the production line, which is in addition to the 3 to 5 jobs for the upgrades to the existing equipment and operation process. Moreover, export volumes are expected to increase by 25 to 50% of domestic production, resulting in the potential for up to 50 new positions at Masco Canada.