Business Dev

Michael Lalonde, owner of Lalonde Custom Plastics, Sudbury Ontario, 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." Norcat - Northern Centre for Advanced Technology IncA not-for-profit, non-share corporation located in Cambrian College