Stryker lauds Day's for molding screw
CONSTANTINE, MICH. — Stryker Corp. recently recognized Day's Molding LLC for its participation in a program involving bioabsorbable screws and plates for craniomaxillofacial surgery.
Constantine-based Day's, a Stryker supplier for 21 years, molded the screws using a specialty terpolymer. Hydrolysis breaks down the polymer and dispels byproducts from the body within 18-36 months.
Day's employs 140 and operates 36 presses of 17-350 tons at its more than 85,000-square-foot plant. Its parent firm is injection molder SciTech Plastics Group LLC of Kansas City, Mo.
Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Stryker develops and makes specialty surgical and medical products and reported 2000 sales of $2.23 billion.
LX Plasticos moves to newly built plant
EL PASO, TEXAS — Mexico Private Equity Fund's management firm has reorganized and moved an injection molding maquiladora in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
LX Plasticos de Juarez S de RL de CV operates 12 Engel presses of 65-1,000 tons, processing thermoplastics in a recently constructed, 66,000-square-foot facility. Operations began in December after relocation from another Ciudad Juarez site that had higher utility rates and rent.
"We are producing TV cabinets, keyboards, speakers and lawn-related equipment," said H. Craig Haas, vice president of sales and marketing for parent firm LX Plastics International Inc. of El Paso.
The Ciudad Juarez operation can assist with process engineering, cross-border services and related support in assembly, packaging, warehousing and shipping. Haas said LX has embarked on a program to obtain ISO 9002 certification by year's end.
The Dallas office of Maguey Management Ltd. oversees LX as managing partner for the Mexico Private Equity Fund, a closed-end investment company listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange.
Thermoform institute names award winners
WASHINGTON — Kintz Plastics Inc. took the top prize in the recent Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. Thermoforming Institute National Awards.
Kintz in Howes Cave, N.Y., won for a cover assembly for a high-speed document scanning machine that includes a combination of 15 pressure-formed parts.
The competition included heavy- and light-gauge parts. Awards were given in late March.
In heavy-gauge, Alltrista Corp. in Indianapolis won in both the thermformed assembly category, for a dash assembly, and in the thermoformed part category, for a table. Kintz won in twin-sheet parts for a tabletop, and Gregstrom Corp. in Woburn, Mass., won in pressure-formed parts for a rack-mounted bezel.
In light-gauge, Plastic Package Inc. in Sacramento, Calif., won food packaging for a chocolate container. Prent Corp. in Janesville, Wis., won in industrial packaging for a pin tray, while Placon Corp. in Madison, Wis., won in consumer packaging for a razor.
Rounding out the competition, Techform Inc. in Mount Airy, N.C., won in medical packaging; Key Packaging Co. Inc. in Sarasota, Fla., won in the display category; and Transparent Container Co. Inc. of Berkeley, Ill., won in the component parts category.
Maughan acquires new injection press
BOLTON, ENGLAND — Custom molder G.H. Maughan (Plastics) Ltd. has invested in a new 138-ton Sandretto injection press to double its spool production.
The Bolton firm is using a multicavity hot-runner mold on the newly installed Sandretto Serie Nove press, said Steve Riding, Maughan's technical and sales director.
The firm has 13 presses, plus five extrusion lines and some rubber injection molding machines. Maughan serves the automotive, construction, pharmaceutical and appliance sectors.
Formation adding space, equipment
QUINTER, KAN. — Formation Plastics Inc. is expanding to meet growing demand for thermoformed parts in lawn and garden and other markets.
The Quinter firm is spending about $400,000 to more than double floor space to 10,000 square feet and to add pressure forming equipment, said owner and President Galen Hoffman. Part of the expansion will be funded by a city industrial revenue bond.
Formation expects to capture more business with new pressure-forming equipment. The process is competitive with injection molding for short-run parts because it provides good cosmetic properties at low tooling cost, said Hoffman.
Formation's sales grew about 36 percent last year to $460,000, partly because of new business in hospital equipment. Formation's key markets include lawn and garden and agricultural components.
Formation likely will hire more staff to supplement its current roster of 15. It now runs four thermoforming lines that process several types of thermoplastic sheet.
