INDIANAPOLIS - Meyer Plastics Inc. is spending about $2.5 million to expand and upgrade its thermoforming and plastic fabricating operations. This month the firm will install a new Brown heavy-gauge thermoforming line at its head office in Indianapolis to expand its dunnage business, according to John Hollen, manager of thermoforming. Meyer also will replace an older, six-axis router with a new, Thermwood, five-axis, computer numerically controlled router, Hollen said in a telephone interview.
Late last year Meyer relocated within Indianapolis to a new facility. The plant now operates four thermoforming lines there making custom, heavy-gauge products such as police car trunk organizers. It also has a plant in Fort Wayne, Ind., that mainly fabricates acrylic products such as boat hatches.
The private firm's thermoforming sales for the year ended Oct. 31 were about $1.5 million. Hollen said most of the rest of its $12 million in total sales was acrylic and polycarbonate fabrication of a range of products, including basketball backboards and point-of-purchase displays. Twelve of Meyer's 100 employees work in the thermoforming business.
Polyester firms announce price hikes
AKRON, OHIO - Three of the six unsaturated polyester resin manufacturers have announced new price increases that will be effective in early March.
The Reactive Polymers Division of Reichhold Chemicals Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C., and the Silmar Resins Division of Interplastic Corp. of Minneapolis announced increases of 3-6 cents per pound.
Reichhold's price increases are effective March 6. Silmar's were effective March 5.
Ashland Chemical Co. of Columbus, Ohio, announced increases of 3-7 cents per pound, effective March 13.
The resin makers cited higher costs for raw materials as reasons for their actions.
Reichhold, Silmar and Ashland are three of the four largest producers of unsaturated polyesters. Officials at Alpha-Owens Corning of Colliersville, Tenn., the second-largest producer of unsaturated polyesters, could not be reached for comment.
PVC pipe company invests $1.4 million
ATHENS, ALA. - PVC pipe extruder Vulcan Plastics Corp. has invested $1.4 million to build a 20,000-square-foot plant with one extruder, next to its headquarters plant in Athens.
Production began Feb. 1 on the new American Maplan extruder, according to Billy Turner, operations manager. Vulcan added 12 employees because of the expansion.
The new building is large enough to hold three extruders.
Vulcan Plastics, an extruder of municipal water and sewer pipe, is a subsidiary of Consolidated Pipe & Supply, a distributor based in Birmingham, Ala. Vulcan Plastics had 1993 sales of $17 million, according to Plastics News' data.
K&N Plastics adds 10th blow mold unit
ELK GROVE VILLAGE, ILL. - K&M Plastics Inc. has installed its 10th blow molding machine, a 20-pound accumulator-head Battenfeld.
The industrial machine is equipped with microprocessor controls and a 90-ton clamp.
K&M, based in Elk Grove Village, employs 72 and operates 10 extrusion blow molding machines at its 110,000-square-foot plant. The company had expanded that facility in March 1994, adding 70,000 square feet to accommodate increased business, according to John Brannan, vice president of sales.
K&M blow molds products for a wide variety of markets, including outdoor power equipment, point-of-sale displays, portable toilets, trucks and buses, with no single customer accounting for more than 3-4 percent of total sales, Brannan said in a Feb. 28 telephone interview.
Its customers include Chrysler Corp., GM Truck & Bus Group and Rockwell International Corp.
Brannan put the privately held firm's sales at less than $20 million.
He said K&M expects to add ``a machine a year, for two to three years, at least, assuming the market remains buoyant.''
The company began blow molding about 22 years ago. It is held by JMK International Corp. of Fort Worth, Texas, whose main business is in molded rubber products for the automotive industry.
