NPE is a huge show for processors to attend, but a handful also exhibit at the event.
Canadian automotive and electronics component supplier Thixotech Inc. (Booth E10460) has become the first company to offer Thixomolding in Europe, with a new plant set to open in September in Plettenberg, Germany.
The Calgary, Alberta-based firm will target European automotive, telecommunications and electronics markets, spokeswoman Sherry Dyck said in a May 1 telephone interview. It already plumbs those markets in North America, she said.
The 5-year-old company will share the Plettenberg plant with its current occupant, a Minneapolis-based, Tier 1 auto supplier, Dyck said.
The plant already has one 245-ton Thixomolding machine, with another on the way.
Thixotech said it could open a third plant, in Detroit, in 2001 to be closer to its automotive customers, she said. And, the company has dreams of eventually expanding into Asia, where it can attract a new set of customers, Dyck added.
At its Calgary plant, Thixotech employs 85 in more than 25,000 square feet of space and operates five Thixomolding presses. The firm reported more than $8 million in 1999 sales.
Extrutech Plastics Inc. (Booth E14548), a Manitowoc, Wis., profile extruder, will share exhibit space with its Italian toolmaker, Calcagni Mario & C srl.
Extrutech will feature its close-tolerance custom PVC profiles, and its line of PVC building products.
The company makes solid, hollow-core and foamed profiles.
Calcagni will show extrusion tooling used to make rigid PVC profiles.
