LEBANON, ORE. — Entek Manufacturing Inc. of Lebanon has added staff to support a new division that makes twin-screw extruders.
Entek has hired 22 people since October. It now employs 70 and intends to add 15-20 more during 1999, engineering director Kirk Hanawalt said by telephone. ``We are also planning a multimillion-dollar expansion of office and manufacturing facilities.''
The Entek Extruders division builds machines with barrel sizes of 36-103 millimeters. The unit takes advantage of in-house capabilities for sophisticated machining, electrical systems and programmable logic controllers.
Entek decided to develop the new line early last year.
An operating Entek extruder was exhibited at October's K'98 show in Germany. Hanawalt said the firm has sold some extruders, but he would not provide details.
The engineering business started in 1984 and mostly has made custom-built screws and barrels for a sister firm. Through the years, Entek added capacity and began external sales in 1995.