PennTecQ enlarging, refurbishing facility
GREENVILLE, PA. — PennTecQ Inc., a Greenville-based manufacturer of parts for automobile doors, broke ground March 17 on a 21,600-square-foot expansion.
The company also is renovating its existing, 56,875-square-foot facility. Company officials said they expect the work to be done before August.
Greenville-Reynolds Development Corp. loaned PennTecQ $250,000 to fund part of the expansion.
PennTecQ's main business is roll-forming steel strips for window channels called glass guides or regulator bars for Honda Motor Co. Ltd., DaimlerChrysler Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. The steel roll-forming line includes a pair of screw-driven injectors that pass PVC into the die and extrude it over the steel. PennTecQ said coextrusion gives the parts the strength and shape-holding qualities of steel and the cosmetic and sealing qualities of plastic.
The company sells the extruded parts to Mazda for its 626 model.
PennTecQ has four small-tonnage injection molding presses used for plastic roof and back window moldings.
Treasurer John Logan said the $625,000 expansion is needed because the company is getting ready to produce parts for the 2000 models.
Logan gave no sales figures, but said the company has grown 250 percent since 1994.
The expansion will create about 14 jobs. PennTecQ, which opened in 1988, now employs 142.
O'Sullivan opens new lamination lab
WINCHESTER, VA. — O'Sullivan Corp. has opened a new lamination laboratory at its Winchester headquarters.
New equipment includes a machine that lays down adhesive onto foam, test ovens, a viscometer to measure the thickness of material and a Karl Fisher machine to measure water in all types of samples.
The company's research team, headed by Sam Dillender Jr., uses the equipment to test the strength of vinyl and polyolefin foam and laminate products, and adhesive cure rates.
``Lamination currently makes up over 50 percent of our automotive business, and we expect demand for lamination services to increase in the future,'' Dillender said in a news release.
Products O'Sullivan laminates for the automotive industry include instrument panels, armrests, seat backs, door panels, glove-box and knee bolsters and console coverings.
O'Sullivan's automotive customers include Visteon Automotive Systems, Honda Motor Co. Ltd., divisions of Magna International Inc., Johnson Controls Inc. and Textron Inc. The firm has three other facilities, in Lebanon, Pa.; Newton Upper Falls, Mass.; and Yerington, Nev.
Huntsman purchases seven-layer extruder
NEWPORT NEWS, VA. — Huntsman Packaging Corp. has purchased a seven-layer Varex blown film extrusion line from Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp.
The line will go to Huntsman's 5-year-old development facility in Newport News, where the company will use it to develop high-barrier films for food packaging, and products for the medical and personal-care industries.
W&H also will use the line for testing for other U.S. customers.
The Newport News facility, which employs 80, is a technical center for engineering and product development, as well as the marketing headquarters.
A Huntsman spokesman said the facility is geared mostly toward development and includes a laboratory to test and evaluate film.
Huntsman also has two W&H five-layer blown film lines at its Bloomington, Ind., plant.
Huntsman Packaging is based in Salt Lake City. W&H is in Lincoln, R.I.
Denali Inc. acquires Dutch pipe maker
HOUSTON — Denali Inc. plans to buy Welna NV, its fourth acquisition of a fiberglass-reinforced-products maker in the past year.
Denali will pay $55 million for the Oldenzaal, Netherlands-based company. The transaction is to be completed this summer.
Welna has two divisions: Welna Kunststoffen BV, which designs, manufactures and installs all forms of fiber-reinforced-plastic pipe systems, vessels and other related equipment; and Welna Handel BV, a trading firm that specializes in products for power generation, water treatment and paper and chemical processing.
Welna has subsidiaries in the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden, France and Poland.
``Welna brings to the combination a strong competitive position in the European market as well as good access to the markets surrounding Europe, particularly through our subsidiaries in France and the United Kingdom,'' said Henk Kroes, Welna chief executive officer.
The Welna companies will continue to operate autonomously.
Denali, a $150 million company, expects combined sales after the acquisition to be at $250 million.
Denali claims the transaction will create the world's largest FRP company that provides corrosive-resistant products and services for chemical processing, pulp and paper, microelectronics and power industries.
Moeser Baer of India entering CD molding
NEW DELHI, INDIA — Moser Baer India Ltd. is adding capability to make CD-recordable media at a facility set for completion next year.
The firm, based near New Delhi, already has a major presence in the floppy-disk market.
Moser Baer named Multi Media Masters & Machinery SA of Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, its exclusive supplier of compact-disc manufacturing equipment and technology. Moser Baer will add an unspecified number of MCL 500 systems, including 66-ton Netstal Discjet 600 presses. The first lines should be running in May, said Daniel Kern, 4M vice president of sales and marketing.
``Each line with two injection molding machines produces about 5 million discs per year,'' Kern said. ``Through time, the expansion will reach the approximately 150 million-disc-per-year capacity.''
4M also sells turnkey manufacturing systems for digital versatile discs. It employs 230 and projects 1999 sales of $142 million.
Jaguar awards Dana cam-cover contract
TOLEDO, OHIO — Dana Corp.'s Plumley Division has been selected to supply plastic composite cover modules for two new Jaguar engines from Ford Motor Co.
The six- and eight-cylinder engines will be used on the 2000 S-type Jaguar, Dana officials said.
The cam covers are made from thermoset materials such as sheet molding compound or bulk molding compound at the Dana division's Composite Sealing Center in Paris, Tenn. Each module integrates as many as 10 parts.
The 60,000-square-foot plant, which opened last year, has 20 cam-cover applications in production, Dana said in a news release. Dana, based in Toledo, had $12.5 billion in 1998 sales.
Zarn adopts parent's Plastic Omnium name
REIDSVILLE, N.C. — Blow molder Zarn Inc., a unit of Plastic Omnium of Paris, has changed its name to Plastic Omnium Zarn. Plastic Omnium acquired Reidsville-based Zarn in 1991.
