MILWAUKEE — Pereles Bros. Inc. is adding two vertical molding presses to its plant to keep pace with growth in the insert molding market and to meet increased demand for overmolding of soft-touch, hand-held products.
Within the next few weeks, the injection molder will add an 80-ton Newbury four-station rotary table press to its 47,000-square-foot Milwaukee plant to handle increased demand for traditional insert molding.
In June, the company expects to add its first dual-injection press from Trueblood Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, to conduct insert molding and overmolding simultaneously.
The Trueblood is 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 machine, which has a clamping force of 150 tons on each side, specifically is geared to meet demand for medium to long production runs of soft-touch, hand-held products such as power-tool grips.
``We really see this market taking off,'' said Pereles project manager Ted Muccio. ``There are numerous applications for soft-touch, hand-held applications right now. We're already proficient with insert molding, and overmolding will be another service we offer.''
The dual-injection press first molds the substrate and then injects a thin layer of thermoplastic elastomer or thermoplastic rubber onto the substrate to form the soft-touch grip. Muccio said the machine eliminates the need to mold a product twice.
``In the past, we had to mold the first part, then take it out and put it in another press and mold it,'' he said. ``Now, it's all done at the same time, which increases our efficiency and lowers our customers' tooling cost.''
Both presses and related equipment are expected to cost $600,000. The new machines give Pereles a total of 35 horizontal and vertical presses. Its horizontal presses have clamping forces of 28-375 tons. The vertical machines range from 40-150 tons.
In addition to new presses, Pereles recently installed several new software packages to enhance its design and development capabilities and improve production efficiency. Pereles employs 140. It received ISO 9002 certification in March.
Pereles recorded sales of $13 million in 1998 and it expects sales this year to increase 8-10 percent, Muccio said.