CHICAGO (July 19, 5:50 p.m. EDT) — O´Neil Color & Compounding Corp. has installed two custom-built, twin-screw extruders for $350,000 each, to boost compounding capacity 15 percent, said operations manager Phil DeChard.
DeChard said the cost includes downstream equipment. The new extruders will produce mostly custom color concentrates and additives for Garfield, N.J.-based O´Neil. The equipment will increase the company´s number of extrusion machines to 15.
"The need for capacity came from a need for a shorter lead time, especially in the Northeast, where everyone wants the material as soon as they order it. We needed a quick turnaround," he said.
The equipment, which began operating at the beginning of this year, is the product of careful design and research, DeChard said.
"The goal of the design was to have more output and more consistency," he said. "It has to run a broad range of material so we built a lot of flexibility into it."
The company already is beginning preliminary plans to add more equipment later, he said.
With 110 employees, O´Neil compounds ABS, PS, PET, polypropylene and polyethylene for packaging, industrial, toys, household and leisure end markets at its plants in Garfield and Jasper, Tenn. O´Neil reported sales of $30 million in 1999. DeChard projects that growth for 2000 will be about 10 percent.
"We are ahead of last year, but it is a strange market now with resin prices so high. Processors put projects on hold until resin goes down," DeChard said.