HOUSTON — Nippon Pigment USA Inc. plans further expansion of its Shelbyville, Ind., compounding plant, an official said at Polyolefins X in Houston.
Sales director Glenn Rasberry said the firm recently spent about $1.5 million to install two large twin-screw extruders to replace two single-screw types. The Werner & Pfleiderer and Century Specialties extruders boosted Shelbyville's monthly capacity to 4.5 million pounds, from 3 million pounds per month, he said. The second of the large twin machines began operating last month.
The firm plans to install another twin-screw model late this year to replace its last single-screw in Shelbyville, Rasberry said.
``Now we need to qualify the new lines,'' he said. ``Then we will look at more equipment.''
Shelbyville currently has one lab-size and eight twin-screw extruders. The firm also plans to build new warehouse space to replace leased, outside space.
Nippon Pigment already had spent about $5 million last year to boost compounding capacity at Shelbyville and at LaPorte, Texas. The Shelbyville operation is called Nippisun Indiana Corp.
The company compounds commodity and engineering resins, mainly for injection molding markets. It has begun a QS 9000 quality certification program for Detroit automakers and expects to complete it in a year.