D&L Tooling & Plastics Inc. added 5,000 feet of office and warehouse space in February, as part of its $500,000 investment during the past year. The Jacksonville, Texas, injection molder operates 15 presses with clamping forces of 55-700 tons, last year adding a 55-ton Engle and a 700-ton Van Dorn Demag, at its 35,000-square-foot plant.
The Van Dorn, purchased to ease the workload of a 500-ton machine, has picked up some additional large-ton business for the firm, according to Vice President Darrell Dement. The machine mainly molds storage bins, which D&L sells to a Dallas retailer.
Including $200,000 for the new presses, D&L has spent more than $500,000 on the expansion, Dement said in a telephone interview Feb. 28. He said he expects to add another 5,000 square feet of storage space by year's end.
The firm also serves the agricultural, telecommunications, safety and medical markets, making products as diverse as rakes, flower pots, safety shoes, biopsy guns, pill dispensers - and sterilization kits for Johnson & Johnson's medical assembly plant in Jacksonville, Dement said. Primarily a custom molder, the company also manufactures a proprietary line of cattle tags, which it hot stamps, and sells directly to customers throughout North America.
This month, D&L will begin marketing another product, a domed trophy case to display a baseball, molded from crystal polystyrene, Dement said.
In 1994 D&L, which employs 50, reported sales of $3 million, up from $2.5 million a year ago.
Other new equipment com-prises chillers, dryers and grinders. Besides molding, D&L provides part design, prototyping, painting, decorating, welding and assembly. A Mattec computer system monitors all presses for production, cycle time, yield and job status. In November the firm opened a quality assurance lab.
Tommy Dement, president and chief executive officer, and his son, Darrell, own the firm.
