Entrepreneur's future shaped in plastics. (Special Report: Sudbury).

Mike Lalonde, owner of Lalonde Custom Plastics, spends much of his time in an airplane. But he is not flying, he is working on the interior of the plane and applying everything he has learned in life to get the job done.

Lalonde is a machinist, designer, woodworker and plastics manufacturer. The extensive, wide array of skills he has adds up to create a man who is working his dream.

"I am doing something I have always wanted to do," says Lalonde. "It is a dream come true."

Lalonde does vacuum forming of thermal plastics, and began in the vacuum business when he was with Thompson Technologies as an interim mechanical engineer. The company brought in a vacuum machine and asked Lalonde to operate it.

"Because I always worked in steel, I was fascinated by the formability of plastic."

Lalonde began making plastic enclosures for remote mining systems. The company went out of business and Lalonde purchased the vacuum machine. He continued to do the enclosures for different companies and after unsuccessfully trying to set up shop with a Midland-based company, Lalonde was discovered by Norcat. Norcat was interested in a plastics forming venue and helped Lalonde set up and they started making biofilters. Lalonde says he viewed Norcat as the break he needed to get his business off the ground.

"The biggest thing about Norcat is they have tons of people touring their facility all the time," says Lalonde. "People were coming up to me and asking if I could do all kinds of things."

While at Norcat, Lalonde began repairing and building new interior panels for aircraft. Lalonde then went to Found Aircraft Inc. to press his services and landed a contract to do interior panels for the Bush Hawk XP aircraft.

"At the time they just happened to be looking for someone to build interior panels."

Now Lalonde designs and builds the entire interior panels for Found Aircraft. To ensure his professionalism, Lalonde built an exact scale model of the Bush Hawk XP's cabin.

"I already have aircraft interiors I have designed and built all over the world."

Lalonde is also working on an interior panel kit for homebuilt aircraft.

Lalonde has been involved with plastics for about six years and his company is two years old.

"To do what I do is just phenomenal."

Lalonde has been a machinist for 20 years, a hobby woodworker his whole life and a mechanical engineer for four years.

"I am a hands-on person and it is really amazing how all my skills combine to produce a product"

Plastic has many advantages, according to Lalonde. It is easy to form, it can be fire and acid resistant, it has zero per cent water absorbency and it is cheap and easy to reproduce.

"Plastic is the future, no matter how much people want to deny it."

Lalonde is so involved with his dream he designed and built his own vacuum machine.

"It took me a week to design it and about two weeks to build it."

Lalonde's machine incorporates a good, tight seal, good heat, powerful suction and durability; all the factors necessary to compete in the aircraft business.

"You need a good seal and suction to get quality and sharp definition and I get it every time."

The advantages of plastic vacuum forming are extensive, according to Lalonde. The price of the wood mould is cheap and good for prototyping. There are many types of plastics one can use, ranging from different colours and thicknesses, and the production run can be limited to one or 500 and everything in between.

"One of the biggest advantages I have is I do the designing, prototyping and production under one roof."

The vacuum process consists of heating up sheets of plastic and bringing a wood mould into it and sealing the two together. The mould has many holes in it to allow tight suction.

"Vacuum processing is great for small numbers."

Lalonde's main product is an aircraft interior panel, but he also makes plastic enclosures of all types, biofilters and pop-up portfolios. Lalonde created a medical enclosure for a friend that had lung disease to replace a big, cumbersome kit She needed to carry an emergency kit with a spare pump, battery and a place to keep her medicine cold.

Lalonde is also in the process of developing a golf tee that would require no bending down and can automatically replace balls.

"It is a nice thing not to have to bend down and it would be great for people with sore backs."

Lalonde loves working with plastics and gets a sense of accomplishment if he can help anyone out by bringing a plastic idea into reality. Lalonde sees a bright future for plastic in Sudbury and hopes to add another employee in the next year to get more products out on the market.

"I think Sudbury needs a plastics manufacturer."