MINNEAPOLIS (Sept. 19, 10 a.m. ET) — Diversified Plastics Inc. recently boosted its ability to make bigger parts and use multiple cavities with the addition of a 610 ton Toshiba horizontal hydraulic injection molding machine.

“Parts are getting bigger and there is also a need for multiple cavities,” said Annette Lund, vice president of Diversified, in a telephone interview.

For Diversified,the Toshiba ISGS 610W is the largest tonnage machine that it has purchased. It also has a 550 ton. Overall, the company has 16 presses ranging from 50 to 610 tons.

Lund said that the mix of machines that Diversified needs for its customers has been changing and that the company is finding the larger tonnage machines gives it more versatility than the mid-range machines. The larger machines give it the ability to mold larger parts for industrial markets including the filtration, battery and aerospace sectors.

The new press, according to Diversified Operations Manager Mark Gremmels, gives the company more flexibility and is able to run some of the existing molds from its smaller presses.

In July, the company took over an adjacent bay in its building to boost the size of its facility by 10,000 square feet to about 53,000 square feet to meet customer demand, especially for medical device components. It is busy converting the space and expects it to be completely occupied by the end of the year. The new space will also include more white and clean room space for assembly.

The new press replaced an older machine in its molding area.

Diversified is a custom molder and has been in business for 35 years. It handles everything from design and mold construction to molding and clean room assembly. It is ISO 9001:2008 and 13485:2003 certified and UL registered.