The following news items were reported from NPE 1997, held June 16-20 in Chicago.
Pilar Technologies adds capacity, staff
Pillar Technologies has expanded its Hartland, Wis., facility by 15,000 square feet, giving the surface-treatment equipment manufacturer 45,000 square feet of space.
The expansion cost $250,000 and boosts its production capacity by 30 percent, said President John Schlump. The firm added about 10 employees, giving it 60 total, he said.
T.A. Systems to make DuKane equipment
DuKane Ultrasonics has struck an agreement with T.A. Systems in Rochester Hills, Mich., to manufacture and market three lines of assembly equipment: hot plate welding, spin welding and hot air/cold upset systems.
T.A. Systems is a manufacturing facility without much sales and distribution, said DuKane marketing director Fred McGowan. St. Charles, Ill.-based DuKane makes ultrasonic plastic assembly systems.
T.A. also will help DuKane build automated systems, he said.
Pad Print Machinery expanding in Italy
Pad Print Machinery Inc. is doubling the size of its Italian production facility in a move the company says will reduce product delivery times dramatically.
The firm's Italian partner, Comec Italia, is adding another 30,000 square feet near its factory outside Milan, said Julian Joffe, president and owner of Manchester Village, Vt.-based Pad Print.
Pad Print also is known as Comec USA, he said.
The company is taking over another building in August, which will help it reduce standard machine delivery time from several months to several weeks and shave time off custom delivery, he said.
Italian equipment maker starts U.S. unit
Italy's Govoni Sim Bianca SpA, a supplier of pneumatic conveying and bulk handling systems, has established a U.S. subsidiary in Oilville, Va.
The unit, Govoni Sim Bianca Inc., employs five sales and technical people, according to Patrizia Osti, marketing director.
The U.S. office opened in late February, Osti said at NPE, and is the forerunner of a larger investment involving facilities in Virginia and other states. Osti was unable to provide further details.
GSB, founded in 1946 and with headquarters near Bologna, designs, manufactures, assembles and tests turnkey bulk materials-handling plants for the plastics, rubber, chemical and food industries. It employs 170 and has annual sales of 70 billion lira (US$45.4 million).
Tetra Pak buys Macchi 3-layer film line
Macchi srl has sold a three-layer blown film line to Tetra Pak Flexible Packaging Systems Inc. of Buffalo Grove, Ill.
Renato Pala, Macchi's general manager, would not disclose where his firm will ship the line, which was on display at NPE. Tetra Pak, well-known for its multilayer constructions that are converted into liquid packaging boxes, indicated last year that it plans to boost its stake in plastics packaging.
Pala said the three-layer line includes two 45-millimeter extruders for the outside film layers and a 55mm extruder for the middle layer. The line, which was running Novacor linear low density polyethylene at the show, can process 550 pounds of resin per hour, Pala said.
NPE was key to Venegono, Italy-based Macchi's North American sales efforts, Pala stressed.
``We are based far away,'' he said. ``This is a nice opportunity to show our technology.''
Pala said his firm plans to set up a service and spare-parts operation in the United States in about a year, but he did not know where. The company has sales representatives in the United States and Canada.
Markem acquires England's Prestek Ltd.
Keene, N.H.-based Markem Corp. has purchased Prestek Ltd., an English manufacturer of printers and thermal transfer date coding machines for an undisclosed price.
Markem acquired two product lines in the purchase: a date coding system and the Cimjet bar-code label printers and applicators. The Cimjet 346 applies labels to both sides of a carton.
James Clemente, U.S. distribution manager for marking systems, said Prestek has only one facility in Nottingham, England.
Markem makes printing and identification equipment.
