Dated history, not fresh headlines.

Founded in Cobourg

Protoplast opens as a precision tooling and pre-production engineering shop. Custom molding grows around the tool room, and the two never separate — that is still the company's structure more than four decades later.

Assembly division launched

7,500 sq ft dedicated to robotic cells and manual assembly, with the tooling and maintenance departments next door for fixtures, calibrations and rapid repairs.

ET Industries acquired

Protoplast buys its own customer, Toronto consumer-products maker ET Industries, gaining its first proprietary line: kitchen and bath items — sink stoppers, sprayers, shower heads — sold at Bed Bath & Beyond, online and in catalogues.

Two manufacturing awards

A Plastics News Excellence Award for employee relations, and a Manufacturing Leadership Award — recognition earned in the same year as the ET acquisition.

SUR Manufacturing opens in Querétaro

A 12,000 sq ft plant in Querétaro, Mexico begins molding parts for the automotive industry on four new presses from 80 to 500 tonnes — global support for new and existing customers.

Shields up, ventilators out

In the pandemic's early days, Protoplast developed two face shield models for its own employees, front-line workers and local businesses.

Then GM launched its ventilator line: Protoplast was selected for 12 components and reached production in 4 weeks, on work that typically takes 14 to 18.