Hot-runner supplier Mold-Masters Ltd. will build a production facility near Spartanburg, S.C., to keep up with sales growth. The Georgetown, Ontario, firm said it purchased 20 acres near Spartanburg and will build a 40,000- to 50,000-square-foot plant scheduled to open in March. It will be comparable in size to Mold-Masters' Baden-Baden, Germany, plant and about one-third the size of its headquarters plant in Georgetown, said marketing manager Dario Vettor. Officials did not disclose the project's cost.
Vettor said the Spartanburg facility will make complete hot-runner systems, including pre-wired assemblies on plates ready to be bolted into the cavity half of a mold. He did not disclose the new plant's initial capacity, but said there is enough planned space to double Mold-Master's total hot-runner capacity. The building also will contain a seminar area.
Mold-Masters will show architectural plans for the operation at the K'95 trade show scheduled for Oct. 5-12 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Mold-Masters has begun construction at the site and is buying equipment such as machining centers, computer-aided design/manufacturing systems and vacuum diffusion ovens. The firm plans to pursue ISO 9001 certification for the operation no more than two years after it begins operating. Its other two plants have the quality certification.
The company said it chose Spartanburg because it is near many customers and prime land is available. Vettor said local incentives were not much of a factor in the decision. He declined to say more. Mold-Masters, which employs about 550, said the Spartanburg plant will employ about 75.