The company moulds products from plastic sheeting and has designed a new plastic layering system for car parts maker ION Automotive in Auckland, which exports to Ford in the United States.

Calvert Plastics won the contract with a design from WelTec design student Johnathan Mountfort.

Calvert's trading manager, John Matthews, said products such as car parts generally went into cardboard boxes, were stacked on a wooden pallet and then placed in containers for export.

ION was already using a plastic pallet from America and wanted a layer pad made of the same material which eliminated wood and cardboard packaging.

New international market regulations were putting pressure on exporting companies to develop alternatives to wood and cardboard packaging, he said.

"You can still use wooden pallets but they have to be fumigated and you have to have the certificate to say they've been fumigated.

"And if they are not fumigated, say for instance if you are sending something from here to Australia on wooden pallets and you haven't got a certificate to say the wood's been fumigated or treated, then they will hold up that container and they will probably end up fumigating the whole load. . . and charge a fortune."

The ION car parts (clutch plates) fit over the ribs of the plastic layers. Another plastic layer is placed on top of the clutch plates and the clutch plates and plastic layers stacked on top of each other.

Mr Matthews said the plastic layering systems were light but tough enough to prevent damage in transit, hygienic, took up little space and could be reused for several years.

Calvert Plastics, which has a staff of 20 and a turnover of about $3 million a year, recently employed Mr Mountfort after being impressed with his plastic layering design.

Mr Matthews said WelTec had a fantastic computer system which developed products and three-dimensional drawings "so you can actually see what the product is doing".

Calvert Plastics used part of a $100,000 grant for research and development from Technology New Zealand to pay for use of WelTec's computerised design system.

He hoped the contract would lead to more work with ION, which was developing new products for the US car market.

Calvert Pastics, 25 per cent owned by Mr Matthews and 75 per cent by Bruce Webster, is already well-known for its clear polycarbonate plastic riot shields used by the police and the army.