Standards & Sustainability

Automotive Quality Standards

Fundamental to export success is quality. Suppliers to the Automotive industry must deliver zero faulty parts. The disciplines to achieve this quality level are applied to all our products. Palm’s manufacturing facility in Melbourne is accredited to automotive quality standard ISO TS16949, to manufacturing and design standard ISO 9001 and to environment standard ISO 14001.

Palm has been making instrument cluster lenses for Toyota for many years. Best practice skills learnt on how to achieve ripple free, mirror-polished lenses have been further refined and applied to the production of exceptional quality consumer products.

All products are made in Melbourne, Australia. Out-sourcing production to Asia is viewed as compromising the close relation between design, engineering and production necessary to produce these high-end products with the required quality and utility levels. This close relationship drives product innovation, continuous improvement and our commitment to quality.

Quality and pride are our driving forces – not short-term cost saving. Our goals are different to those of most of our competitors. We aim to do things the right way with a clear vision – each decision, by all members of staff, whether large or small, is made with this vision. It guides us each day. Doing things the right way over the long term results in the lowest cost and the highest quality as it drives out waste and inefficiency.

Visitors to our Melbourne factory are amazed at our levels of technology, systems and productivity.

Sustainability

Palm Products is certified to Environment standard ISO14001. This standard mandates that there is an effective on-going improvement plan to reduce environmental inputs and outputs

Palm Products is committed to using industry best practice and to introduce ever-more sustainable and safer materials and production processes as they become available. We aim to be at the leading edge.

Sustainability is determined by such factors as whether a product contains renewably source material, the material’s energy of manufacture, the economy of material usage in the product, the energy used during processing, the products useful life, and disposal. Palm Products has taken the following actions:

Using Sorona®, a new 35% Renewably sourced material from DuPont, is used in the new Sorona Plate and Bowl collection and Caffe Cup even though it is significantly more expensive than alternatives.
In sourcing raw materials, the energy used from extraction, through useful life to disposal is considered
Energy efficient European equipment is used
Long life materials are used
Designs are robust and long lasting
All materials used are 100% recyclable

Food Safety – BPA-free and Melamine-free

Palm Products is a BPA-free company.

There are legitimate questions on the safety of many plastics and of melamine.

Considerable care is taken to ensure that there are no material related issues with our products.

Palm Products has taken the following actions:

BPA-containing polycarbonate has been phased out. Polycarbonate is banned in France and in California, under Proposition 65, Bisphenol A is listed as it is known to Cause Reproductive Toxicity, Effective May 11, 2015.
Ethical Material sourcing occurs from leading companies like DuPont and Eastman, who provide certified materials with 100% traceability.
Quality certification ensures that systems are in-place to prevent substitution of materials. 100% traceability means that a product can be traced from a consumer, back to the day of production and to the material batch numbers uses. Substitution and trust are considered important issues.
Product labelling includes material type
If US or Euro authorities have safety concerns expressed as a “minimum daily safe intake” – such as exists for Polycarbonate and Melamine – these materials are not used.