ASHTABULA, OHIO — Meese Orbitron Dunne Co. is adding new machines at two facilities, according to company executives.
The custom rotational molder based in Saddle Brook, N.J., also has introduced several new products, including a cross-linked polyethylene sump pump housing for the home construction market.
Meese Orbitron Dunne is expanding its factory in Madison, Ind., by 28,000 square feet, giving the facility roughly 150,000 square feet of space, according to President Ronald Midili. As part of the expansion, the plant will add a rotomolding machine and a pulverizer. Midili said the Indiana factory will hire more employees, though numbers have not been determined yet.
Investment for the expansions will total more than $3 million, he said.
Midili detailed the plans during an Aug. 26 interview at the company's Ashtabula plant — which also is getting a new rotomolding machine. Midili and Robert W. Dunne Jr., general manager at the plant, said the firm wants to buy the machine by year-end to begin rotomolding products by spring.
The rotomolders for both plants, in Ashtabula and Madison, will be big enough to make parts 14 inches in length, with a 160-inch swing. The firm has not decided on the make of those machines, Dunne said. He added that the Ashtabula site is large enough to accommodate the equipment.
New products made at the Ashtabula factory, which specializes in custom rotomolding, include:
A cross-linked PE housing for a submersible sump pump, made by Liberty Pumps Inc. of Bergen, N.Y. Dunne said the Ashtabula factory has been rotomolding traditional, linear low density PE sump pump housings for Liberty since the early 1980s.
The LLDPE housing was aimed at the retrofit market for homes adding a sump pump. The new cross-linked PE housing has better crush resistance, making it a better choice for new construction where workers pack dirt in around the pump, he said. The pump goes inside the housing, which has 16 molded-in inserts.
Several new retail displays for do-it-yourself stores, molded for customer RHH Industries Inc. of Mentor, Ohio, a designer of point-of-purchase displays. One holds outdoor residential lighting. The other displays literature on how to build your own deck.
The rotomolding company's Madison factory has introduced an LLDPE intermediate bulk container that eliminates the need to have someone climb into the tank to clean it, a potentially dangerous practice. A disposable liner drops down into the tank, attached to a stainless steel fitting. The product is called the Outliner Sump.
