EASLEY, S.C. - McKechnie Plastic Components is spending $3.5 million to expand its Easley custom injection molding and painting facility. McKechnie recently installed a 3,500-ton HPM press and is building a 25,000-square-foot Class A paint shop to increase painting efficiency. McKechnie now has 76 presses at the facility with clamping forces of 35-3,500 tons. The new paint shop will boost the plant's space to more than 400,000 square feet.
The firm said the expansion is partly to supply new, large contracts with automotive and transportation companies. Officials declined to identify the customers.
Indiana firm buys Fiberglass Industries
MUNCIE, IND. - Arrowhead Plastic Engineering Inc. in Muncie has acquired another facility in the Southeast.
The firm purchased Fiberglass Industries Inc. and its plant in Fort Valley, Ga., from Bertha and Paul Chapman on Sept. 6. Terms were not disclosed.
The Georgia facility employs 35 and manufactures more than 100 fiberglass-reinforced and thermoplastic parts, principally bus and recreational vehicle front and rear units, roofs, sides, seats, hoods, grilles and bezels.
Arrowhead Plastic Engineering employs 250 and focuses on molded composite and thermoplastic products for original equipment manufacturers. Thomas Kishel, president, opened the Muncie plant in 1972, established an Elgin, S.C., facility in 1987, and acquired an Elmore, Ala., plant in 1993.
Canada's Eco-logo has new guidelines
Canada's Exo-logo has new guidelines
MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO - Canada's plastic film and bag producers have new guidelines allowing them to use the green logo of the country's Environmental Choice Program.
Products complying with the guidelines can feature the Eco-Logo symbol of three doves in a chasing arrow motif, giving consumers a choice to support plastic recycling.
The federal environment ministry recently introduced the guidelines to make it easier for firms to qualify for the logo. It set the guidelines with input from industry, including the Plastic Film Manufacturers Association of Canada, a division of SPI Canada in Mississauga.
Plastic bags and shrink film must contain a minimum of 20 percent post-consumer plastic, with at least 10 percent of the total from curbside-collected plastic. Products also must be free of heavy metals.
Hexcel, Ciba-Geigy deal awaiting OKs
PLEASANTON, CALIF. - Hexcel Corp. and Ciba-Geigy Ltd. remain on schedule to combine Hexcel's business with that of Ciba-Geigy's composites division this year. The deal needs shareholder, financial, regulatory and security clearances.
Hexcel's board of directors approved the definitive agreement Sept. 29, a few days after the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act expired. That means the U.S. Justice Department will not intervene.
On July 11, Hexcel and Ciba-Geigy announced the plan to consolidate their advanced composite, honeycomb, reinforcement fabric and structural component businesses into a new Hexcel Corp. that would have more than $600 million in annual sales and about 4,500 employees. Strategic targets for advanced composites include Asia's aircraft market and infrastructure and earthquake-protection applications.
The merger encompasses all of Pleasanton-based Hexcel and about 1.8 percent of total sales of Ciba-Geigy, a biological and chemical group with headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, and composites division offices in Anaheim, Calif.
Quantum recycling plant still for sale
HEATH, OHIO - Although several potential buyers have expressed interest in Quantum Chemical Co.'s Heath, Ohio, recycling plant, it remains on the market and continues to operate.
For a period this summer the polyethylene recycling plant stopped receiving new shipments of used plastics, feeding speculation that the plant would be permanently closing or changing hands. Bruce Perlson, Quantum's manager of plastic and environmental affairs, said the plant stopped accepting material ``for inventory reasons and working capital considerations.''
Ronald Yocum, Quantum's chief executive, president and chairman, said in May that the plant has never made money.
