GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. - Master Plastic Products, a Grand Rapids custom molder serving automotive and other markets, has bought an HPM H1000 hydraulic-clamp injection press. Mike Mulder, plant manager, credited increased orders as the reason for the purchase.
The press has 1,000 pounds of clamping force and features an HPM Command 90 microcomputer control system with multicapabilty control for parallel processing; a resolution, touch-sensitive screen with easy-to-read color graphics; and menu button offering fast access to setup screens.
Mulder did not disclose the machine's cost.
Master Plastic has 17 presses with clamping forces of 80-1,500 tons. Company sales figures were not available.
Plas-Tech, Berkey join forces, expand
BRIMFIELD, IND. - Plas-Tech Molding & Design Inc. and Berkey Machine have joined forces and moved into a 30,000-square-foot facility in Brimfield. The companies had been in two separate buildings in nearby Kendallville, Ind., with a combined 10,000 square feet of space.
Plas-Tech is a custom injection molder; Berkey is a mold and die business specializing in traveling wire and conventional electric discharge machining.
Plas-Tech employs 12 in its molding operations, including five new workers. It plans to add another employee, and more injection molding equipment, before year's end.
C-Plastics gains warehouse space
LEOMINSTER, MASS. - Custom injection molder C-Plastics Corp. has added 10,000 square feet of warehouse space to its existing 40,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Leominster.
The space will be used to support customers' just-in-time inventories and electronic data interchange requirements. The firm specializes in close-tolerance and optical parts such as pipes and lenses for the automotive, electronic and medical industries.
In the past 12 months, C-Plastics has added four new Nissei presses with 175-700 tons of clamping force. Last February it added a certified Class 10,000 clean room, which houses one 60-ton and one 80-ton unit.
C-Plastics now has 11 molding machines with 60-700 tons of clamping force. Automotive molding accounts for the largest portion of the firm's sales. Customers include medical device makers and other original equipment manufacturers.
C-Plastics reported 1994 sales of more than $7.5 million.
Sealed Air acquires New Zealand firm
SADDLE BROOK, N.J. - Sealed Air Corp. of Saddle Brook has completed its previously announced acquisition of New Zealand-based flexible packaging materials maker Trigon Industries Ltd.
Sealed Air bought Trigon for 882,930 newly issued shares of Sealed Air's common stock and $25.5 million in cash.
``We expect Trigon's products and dedicated employees will complement our protective packaging business and enhance our growth opportunities through technological innovations and global expansion,'' said T.J. Dermot Dunphy, Sealed Air's president.
Trigon's sales were about $77 million in its most-recent fiscal year, ended June 30. Trigon has operations in Australasia, Europe and the United States.
Sealed Air makes and sells protective and specialty packaging materials and food packaging products. Its 1994 sales were $519.2 million.
Creative Techniques adds workers, space
AUBURN HILLS, MICH. - Creative Techniques Inc., a turnkey supplier of custom molded materials-handling products, had its first scheduled plant shutdown in 10 years.
The closing, in late December, allowed the Auburn Hills firm to receive new equipment and reorganize its manufacturing operation.
It added 8,000 square feet of production space and bought a third computer numerically controlled machining center for its inhouse toolroom.
Creative Techniques also installed a fourth machine, a used CNC Fadal, this month.
In May, the firm added a 3,500-square-foot engineering room.
Engineering and manufacturing space for the expansion cost about $500,000; equipment purchases totaled about $370,000.
Creative Techniques nearly doubled its work force to almost 100 employees as a result of the expansion.
Auto parts molder's equipment for sale
WALLACEBURG, ONTARIO - Danbury Sales Inc. has inventoried equipment it will auction for North American Plastics Co. Ltd. of Wallaceburg, an auto parts molder and plater which went bankrupt in October.
Injection equipment includes 13 presses with clamping forces of 215-1,500 tons, controls and chillers. Plating equipment for sale includes lines for copper, electroless copper and nickel. Danbury, based in Toronto, also lists pulverizers, laboratory and test equipment, machinery tools, a waste treatment system and other equipment for sale at the auction scheduled for March 7-8 at North American Plastics' Wallaceburg site.
St. Jude installing two extrusion lines
FRACKVILLE, PA. - The addition of two extrusion lines in coming months will help St. Jude Polymer Corp. expand its PET recycling capabilities and move into new product lines.
Frank Petrachonis, vice president of the Frackville recycled PET pellet supplier, said one extrusion line, the company's second, will be in operation by the end of February, and a third extruder will be added to the 84,000-square-foot plant by summer.
``We are not expanding the building,'' Petrachonis said. ``But we are expanding into making high density polyethylene sheet.''
St. Jude had ground and repelletized clear and mixed-color post-consumer PET exclusively until late 1994, Petrachonis said, when the availability of some HDPE feedstock bottles made it possible to add the second material. Petrachonis declined to give production or sales figures.
``We were receiving bales of mixed PET and HDPE,'' he said. ``So we started running the polyethylene on the machine. The new machine will be for high density.''
Partners' Packaging merges with CCP
FORT MILL, S.C.-Partners' Packaging, a Nashville, Tenn., converter, has merged its operations into Carolina Converting and Printing of Fort Mill.
CCP is a converting and printing plant for polyethylene bags and film. Jim Irvine, who had been president of PP, will succeed Tim Hoyle as president of CCP. Hoyle is owner and president of CCP's parent firm, Carolina Industrial Resources, based in Rocky Mount, N.C., and is owner of CCP.
The merger gives CCP ``a little booster shot,'' Hoyle said in a Feb. 14 telephone interview. PP moved its equipment and business into the Fort Mill plant from November through December, and resumed operations in early January.
Hoyle said the partnership combines PP's expertise with CCP's added revenue. CCP plans ``to rejuvenate existing equipment and buy new presses,'' he added.
CIR specializes in manufacturing and marketing printed PE bags and film, and serves companies and industries in the southeastern United States.
Hoyle said 1994 sales for the combined converting operations were about $4 million. He projects this year's sales will reach about $5.25 million.
Plastic Packaging adds space to plant
WEST SPRINGFIELD, MASS. - Plastic Packaging Corp. is expanding its West Springfield plant to boost production of its injection molded products.
Susan M. Weiss, marketing vice president, said the 55,000-square-foot addition to the existing, 49,000-square-foot plant will be complete by June or July.
The expansion will allow for the addition of printing and injection molding lines and warehouse space, but Weiss declined to comment on how many lines will be added, total volume, or sales.
The company injection molds and decorates polypropylene, high density polyethylene and linear low density PE containers, lids, and food-service products. It employs 150.
Daytona Plastix Inc. boosts plant space
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. - Daytona Plastix Inc. is expanding, with a $3.5 million addition to its facilities in Daytona Beach and the purchase of a 17,000-square-foot building nearby.
The company also opened a 33,000-square-foot warehouse in Marietta, Ga., last month.
Thomas Loebel, president and chief executive officer, said the money to build the 35,000-square-foot Florida addition came from county industrial revenue bonds. The company currently operates out of a 20,000-square-foot facility.
The company also has a warehouse in Phoenix, which it expanded in November.
Daytona Plastix distributes sheet, rod and tube primarily for the marine industry. It also produces the proprietary products Marine Tuff, Proboard and Propanel, used for replacing wood on boats.
Loebel would not reveal annual sales, but said 1994 sales were strong, with a 22 percent increase over 1993. Loebel employs 50, a figure he said will double in the next 12-18 months.
Briefly
Kelch Corp's Lenoir, N.C., steering wheel plant has reached full production. The business unit was a part of Kelch's Injection Technology plant in Mequon, Wis. Kelch operates seven manufacturing facilities through five business units: Assemblies and Injection Technology in Mequon, Wis.; Aluminum Molds in Cedarburg, Wis., and Middlefield, Ohio; Orha Industries in Stow, Ohio, and Twinsburg, Ohio; and Wheels in Lenoir.
Wtah Medical Products Inc.,a Midvale, Utah-based company that develops, manufactures, assembles and markets a range of medical devices, has created new purchase and distribution agreements with the Edwards Critical Care Division located in Irvine, Calif., a division of Baxter Healthcare Corp. of Deerfield, Ill.
Triple S Plastics Inc., a Vicksburg, Mich., manufacturer of injection molded thermoplastic components, completed the 52,000-square-foot expansion of its Tucson, Ariz., plant.