Nypro Inc. is investing more than US$18 million to expand its Singapore facility and upgrade technology and equipment.
In a departure from its core plastics technology, Nypro by late summer will offer thixotropic molding of metal pa rts in Singapore, initially using a new JSW press, said Alfred Cotton, Nypro's public affairs manager in Clinton, Mass.
The process suspends metal particles through an injection molding cycle to yield a finished part of magnesium or other material. Cotton said the process will be ``one of Nypro Singapore's earliest new technological advances'' and will meet a market need.
Nypro's wholly owned Nypro Singapore Pte. Ltd. facility will be the firm's center of metal-molding technology. David Goh, a 40-year-old Singapore native, is managing director of the facility.
The two-year investment includes a four-story addition Nypro Singapore has constructed next to its existing 70,000-square-foot building, which is mostly on one level. The expansion adds 50,000 square feet of manufacturing and technical space.
Now being outfitted, the new space can accommodate 20 injection molding machines for plastic or metal processing, Cotton said in a telephone interview. Currently, the Singapore site molds plastics on 43 presses with clamping forces of 20-350 tons.
Nypro will have first-floor auxiliary equipment feeding presses in a second-floor molding clean room. The third floor will have a technical center for Nypro's Asian operations, and the fourth floor is reserved for expansion of engineering and computer-aided design.
Other Nypro sites in Asia mold products in Bangalore, India; and Shenzhen and Tianjin, China. A Hong Kong facility makes tools. Nypro plans to add a plant in Shanghai, China, by 2001.
Nypro Singapore was established in 1987 as a joint venture. Nypro took full ownership in 1993.
Cotton said Nypro projects total 1999 sales of $500 million, at 24 plants in 11 countries. Nypro ranked eighth in Plastics News' 1999 list of North American injection molders, with $389.3 million in relevant sales.