Microdyne Plastics Inc. has separated its Ontario, Calif., injection and blow molding operations, giving both room to grow. In August the firm moved six blow molding machines from its 33,000-square-foot Ontario headquarters plant to a site in south Ontario, said Duane Brown, vice president.
``It's a considerable capital investment, but the payoff is going to be dramatic,'' according to Brown.
Microdyne took a five-year lease on the 22,000-square-foot building, which is brand-new, according to Brown. The company has no immediate need to add blow molding capacity, though it expects that scenario to change.
The larger plant will continue to house Microdyne's 20-year-old injection molding operations. Both units are headed by Ron Brown, Duane's father.
The blow molding business was launched five years ago with a proprietary line of low and high density polyethylene sports bottles, still its primary product. Since then the 30-person shop has branched into a mix of different end markets and products, including medical arm supports, car-wash vacuum cleaner nozzles, spice containers, floats for ice machines and golf accessories.
The company also supplies bottles for drinking water. Blow molding sales for the year ended Aug. 31 were $1.7 million, according to Brown.
One market rife with potential that Microdyne has not cracked is industrial blow molding, such as cases for power tools, he said.
His firm has set its sights on that turf, ``because not many companies on the West Coast are doing [industrial blow molding],'' he said.
This year the injection molding unit, with more than 40 presses and 80 workers, had sales of about $8.4 million, he said.
In addition to custom work, it molds HDPE caps and elastomer stoppers for Microdyne sports bottles.
The company also offers product and mold design, using AutoCAD 11, to both injection and blow molding customers. Brown said it is looking into adding three-dimensional design software, such as Pro/Engineering.
A facility that is located in Tecate, Mexico, with 30 employees, does assembly and secondary work.
