MAYFIELD, KY. - Hanson Group Ltd. has begun replacing older injection molding presses at its Purchase Plastics division, which it acquired in April. Hanson announced it bought nine new Van Dorn presses with clamping forces of 230-500 tons for an undisclosed price. It will install all the machines at Purchase's Mayfield molding operation by late August to upgrade the facility's molding capabilities to standards of Hanson's headquarters plant in Ludlow, Mass.
Hanson will sell nine of Purchase's older presses to a used equipment dealer and keep the other eight for now, said John Rego, Hanson's vice president of market development. Rego said his firm eventually plans to replace the eight presses and to buy bigger presses, with clamping forces of 700 tons or larger, next year.
Purchase custom molds for automotive, consumer products and industrial markets. Rego said Purchase employs about 55 at Mayfield.
Hanson also bought a Pro-Engineer CAD station for its design center in Ludlow to improve efficiency of design and mold-building programs and customer communications.