Joint venture LMS Beach is reaching full production at its newly established Tullamore, Ireland, facility.
The venture is to begin shipping plastic and metal components early this month to computer makers' assembly sites, mainly in Ireland and Scotland.
``We have been qualifying tools,'' Eugene Peden, managing director, said in a telephone interview.
LMS Beach acquired the site in mid-1998, took occupancy and started remodeling Aug. 1, and began commissioning machines and molding parts in October.
Manufacturing operations occupy about 80,000 square feet, and warehousing fills the remainder of the 220,000-square-foot building.
Additional manufacturing ``will be phased in as we grow,'' Peden said, and warehousing will move elsewhere.
The site employs 60 now and expects to have 150 by the end of January, Peden said.
Currently, the venture operates eight Milacron injection molding machines with clamping forces of 75-1,000 tons.
Two more presses are to arrive within three months. The operation also has three Minster metal-stamping machines of 160-600 tons.
Eventually, LMS Beach will install full tooling capabilities and create a turnkey operation that will mold, stamp and assemble computer enclosures for original equipment manufacturers, the company said.
The new site draws on concepts from LMS Beach's comparable New Braunfels, Texas, operation, which supplies OEMs such as Dell Computer Corp. of Round Rock, Texas, and Compaq Computer Corp. of Houston.
Units of Lightning Tool & Design Inc. of Elk Grove Village, Ill., and Beach Mold & Tool Inc. of New Albany, Ind., formed the joint venture in December 1997. Peden was an automotive engineer before joining LMS Beach in February.