Tech-Seal setting up at W.Va. warehouse
ROSELLE, ILL. — Tech-Seal Products Inc. plans to buy and renovate a warehouse in Wheeling, W.Va., and begin production there this fall of its custom cap liners and tamper-resistant inner seals.
The 57,680-square-foot building, now an RXI Plastics warehouse, will replace Tech-Seal's 20,000-square-foot Wheeling facility. Roselle-based Tech-Seal plans to buy new equipment for the plant, including a two-color printer, polyethylene foam extrusion lines and die-cutting machinery. Tech-Seal estimates its total investment in the move will be $1.5 million to $2 million.
The company has received preliminary approval for a $500,000 loan from the West Virginia Economic Development Authority to buy the building, said David Warner, director of economic development.
The company employs 19 at its current Wheeling facility, but expects to employ at least 30 after one year.
George Antar, Tech-Seal marketing and communications manager, said the reason for the expansion is Tech-Seal is ``growing in product line supply, as well as territorial expansion, domestically and internationally.''
Antar said the company also may expand its 12,000-square-foot Roselle facility, but no final decision has been reached.
The company estimated annual sales for 1998 at $10 million. Tech-Seal serves the food, pharmaceutical and industrial packaging industries.
Siemens Canada plant evacuated for fumes
WINDSOR, ONTARIO — More than 100 employees at Siemens Canada Ltd.'s Windsor plant were evacuated May 5 to avoid fumes during a mold purge.
The plant, which injection molds nylon manifolds for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp., lost about seven hours of production while employees were examined in hospitals. Smoldering nylon in a mold being purged released ammonia, hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide gases.
When employees noticed the smoldering resin just before 9 a.m. they called the fire department and evacuated. Several employees were taken to hospitals in ambulances and the rest were bused for examination. One was admitted to an intensive-care unit, but it was not known if his condition was a result of the emissions. He was listed as stable. Five employees were kept for overnight observation. Production resumed about 3 p.m. with the afternoon shift.
Dr. Allen Heimann, Essex County health officer, said in a telephone interview that levels of the toxic gases were primarily lung irritants confined to the Siemens plant. Some employees complained of nausea and dizziness, but officials did not expect any long-term adverse effects.
Siemens plant manager David Noel said May 6 that everyone was ``safe and sound.'' He complained that local media ``made a mountain out of a mole hill.'' Employees were evacuated as a precautionary measure, he stressed.
The Siemens plant employs about 300. About 125 employees were working at the time of the incident.
Extruder Kalle takes parent firm's name
MONTABAUR GERMANY — Sheet extruder Kalle Pentaplast GmbH, a subsidiary of Duisburg, Germany-based Klockner Werke AG, has been renamed Klockner Pentaplast GmbH.
Frank Peters, executive vice president of sales and communications for Klockner Pentaplast GmbH, said Kalle wanted the same name as its mother company, and also as its sister company, sheet extruder Klockner Pentaplast of America Inc. of Gordonsville, Va.
The European Klockner Pentaplast has film production facilities in Montabaur and Gendorf, Germany, and Weert, the Netherlands. The company also has a furniture films finishing facility in Graben-Neudorf, Germany, and a pharmaceutical barrier films plant in Liebefeld, Switzerland.
The two Klockner Pentaplast companies employ about 2,400 and will have annual sales of nearly 1.3 billion deutsche marks ($738.8 million).