Megatech changes owners for 3rd time
AUBURN HILLS, MICH. — MSX International Inc. has purchased Megatech Engineering Inc., a major plastic product development center that has changed hands twice this year.
Megatech, based in Warren, Mich. was owned by large injection molder Becker Group Inc., a Sterling Heights, Mich., company that used the facility for in-house design and engineering and contracted it for outside work.
Becker and its Megatech subsidiary were sold last year to Johnson Controls Inc., another large auto supplier with automotive headquarters in Plymouth, Mich.
The facility will enhance MSX's capabilities in technical staffing and product development, MSX President John Risk said in a news release. MSX, based in Auburn Hills, is one of the auto industry's largest engineering firms, with sales topping $1 billion a year and 55 locations.
Megatech offers data management and prototyping capabilities such as laser scanning, secondary-equipment design and prototype parts. The company has 500 employees.
Pereles buys unique Trueblood press
MILWAUKEE — Injection molder Pereles Bros. Inc. is purchasing a one-of-a-kind vertical molding press to allow the company to conduct overmolding and insert molding simultaneously.
The dual-injection press from Trueblood Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, equipped with a 60-inch, four-station rotary table that offers concurrent use of two injection and clamp units on either side of it.
The press has a clamping force of 150 tons on each side, said Pereles project manager Ted Muccio. The company plans to use the machine, expected to arrive in April, for soft-touch, power-tool grips and for electronic applications, Muccio said.
Pereles works from a 46,000-square-foot Milwaukee plant and has 33 presses with clamping forces of 30-375 tons. The company plans to replace several horizontal units with the new vertical press, Muccio said.
The company expects to record about $14 million in 1998 sales, Muccio said.
Geon, OxyChem finalize joint ventures
AVON LAKE, OHIO — Geon Co. and Occidental Chemical Corp. of Dallas have signed a definitive agreement in their previously announced joint ventures.
The companies will form Oxy Vinyls LP, a PVC resin and vinyl chloride monomer joint venture in Dallas owned 24 percent by Geon and 76 percent by OxyChem. Under the agreement, Geon will acquire OxyChem's PVC compounding and film businesses in Burlington, N.J., and OxyChem's pellet compounding business in Pasadena, Texas.
The deal also creates a second joint venture owned 90 percent by Geon, involving OxyChem's new powder compounding plant in Pasadena and Geon's powder compounding plant in Plaquemine, La.
The board of directors of Avon Lake-based Geon approved the agreement Dec. 22. The companies said in a news release they expect to close the transaction by the end of the first quarter of 1999, pending approval from directors of Occidental Petroleum Corp., Geon shareholders and government agencies.
Design firm diversifies into processing
ERIE, PA. — A northwestern Pennsylvania project- and mold-design firm has diversified into injection molding.
Robson Co. Inc. added a 30-ton Boy press in October for regular production runs. The company is considering the addition of two more small Boys and is ``working toward ISO 9000 with a target date of September,'' President Christopher Robson said in a telephone interview.
Established in January 1994, the firm employs four for engineering and molding in two buildings that are 10 miles apart.
``We will combine both [locations] when the time arises,'' said Robson, a former tooling manager in Philadelphia and, earlier, a tool-shop owner.
Robson Co. uses Cadmax Corp. computer-aided-design software in a 1,200-square-foot building in Fairview, Pa.
Meanwhile, a 2,400-square-foot plant in Erie molds small precision parts for commercial and electronic applications, and possibly medical in the future.
``Presently, we can run two shifts,'' Robson said.
Britton Group consolidating operations
LOUTH, ENGLAND — Plastic film and flexible packaging company Britton Group Plastics Ltd. is reorganizing two operations in Louth, cutting 25 jobs.
Following its July acquisition of a third unit at Louth — Merlin Flexible Packaging Ltd., renamed Britton Merlin — the company is relocating its Britton Security Products Ltd. unit to the Merlin site. The two operations will retain separate identities despite sharing the same site