Fix-Corp International Inc., which formed a subsidiary in August to make plastic pallets, has installed a third line for recycling post-consumer high density polyethylene at its Heath, Ohio, Fixcor Industries Inc. unit.
The $1.2 million investment in the new line will double Fix-Corp's recycled resin output to about 72 million pounds a year, according to company spokesman Bill Buckholtz.
``The increased production capacity couldn't have come at a better time,'' Buckholtz said in a telephone interview from Fix-Corp's Beachwood, Ohio, headquarters. ``We need the raw materials. We've got to get the resin.''
Buckholtz said the third line will support production of the plastic pallets the company plans to produce by year's end through its Palletech Inc. subsidiary, and to meet strong product demand for resin.
``We're sold out [of product] through 1998,'' Buckholtz said.
``The plant has been running at full capacity, 24 hours a day, seven days a week since May,'' Mark Fixler, Fix-Corp chairman, chief executive officer and president, said in a prepared statement. ``At full capacity, this line will be able to produce approximately 4,500 pounds per hour, or close to 40 million pounds per year.''
Buckholtz said the Heath plant was expanded from 50,000 square feet to 57,000 square feet in September to accommodate the larger line.
Additional expansion is likely, as the result of a worldwide licensing agreement Fix-Corp signed Sept. 30 with an AlliedSignal Inc. business unit to separate motor oil from HDPE containers.
The firm is working with AlliedSignal's Federal Manufacturing & Technologies operation to recycle the oil containers using a process for which AlliedSignal has a pending patent. Fix-Corp is developing a system to collect the vessels and transport them to its Ohio recycling plant. The firm's initial collection program will operate in California, where the containers are to be ground and the resulting flake sent to the Heath plant.
Buckholtz said the 70-employee firm had projected about $40 million in sales for 1998 before inking the AlliedSignal contract, which is expected to produce an additional $14 million to $17 million in sales.
