We think in molds, for more than 25 years

His education is hands-on through and through: LTS Metal, MTS and HTS Mechanical Engineering, with filing, turning, milling, and CNC as his profession. From the age of fourteen, he was already programming machines and making drawings in a furniture factory, and as a child, he already drew cars. Designing and making things himself has been in him from an early age.

QDP is the company of Maick Klaassen. He founded it in 1998, after a start in the semiconductor industry and years as one of the first freelancers in the Netherlands. Through mold making, including test molds for the shavers from Philips Drachten, he found his foundation: knowing how something needs to be made before you design it.

More than 25 years later, he is still actively involved in customer conversations, product development and the direction of the company. His motto sums up what QDP stands for: we think in molds. Every design with us is assessed for manufacturability from the very first sketch.

Maick Klaassen started his career in the semiconductor industry and as one of the first freelancers in the Netherlands, years before the word 'zzp’er' existed. After the dotcom crash, he consciously sought a crisis-proof sector: you always need food. Through the food and packaging sector, making lids for dairy companies among others, he ended up in injection molding and at a mold maker that built, among others, test molds for the shavers of Philips Drachten. Those years at the drawing board formed the foundation: knowing how something should be made before you design it.

In 2005, he started outsourcing injection molding in China. A Chinese factory likes to make a new mold, even for a small series: that’s where the margin is. As soon as the repeat orders came, in our sweet spot of 500 to 20,000 pieces, the same factory earned only a few hundred euros per order, and the attention disappeared. Delivery times increased, quality dropped, and twice an entire mold set simply disappeared at a supplier: same building, different letters on the sign, different machines. Lying to customers about those delivery times was not for him. This is the classic risk of outsourcing: as a customer, you are too small for the factory, and your product no longer gets any attention.

In 2010 the decision was made: an own factory, together with a sourcing partner and a contributing customer. Two years later, that sourcing partner wanted to start producing themselves on the joint machines; we bought them out. Since 2012, QDP is 100 percent owner of that factory, now known as ShengZhou MeiTaiLi Machinery Co., LTD. Are you doing this yourself in China and does this sound familiar? Then that’s exactly what we work for.

In Duiven the focus is on product development and preparing for production: mold-flow analyses, fine-tuning files, all checks before a mold starts. That's where engineering is. In Shengzhou we then produce for customers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Spain, on energy-efficient machines and with SMETA 4-Pillars certification for labor, health, environment and ethics.