CLEVELAND - Dural, Australia-based Profile Automation is moving into North America with a Los Angeles distribution and training facility scheduled to open within three months.
The maker of leak-detection machines is starting small for its North American expansion, said co-owner Thomas Mitchell. The location will be a shared facility with an Australian company not affiliated with the plastics industry. Mitchell would not disclose his company's investment in the facility, where it also will conduct research and development for its newest foray into sprue-picking robots.
``Injection molding is a much bigger market, and getting into sprue pickers will help our bottom-line growth,'' Mitchell said during a June 21 interview at Plastics Encounter Cleveland. ``I think there's an increasing market for sprue pickers.''
The company will release its first model in August. According to company literature, it is finishing a high-speed, 20-inch sprue picker with a 0.3-second take-out time for low payloads of up to 8 ounces. The company also is building a standard sprue picker for payloads of up to 4.4 pounds.
The units will be equipped with new software that allows an operator to program a simple routine and save it with a product range, Mitchell said.
The company also displayed a leak technology machine with auto tuning for the detection of small holes.
The method allows an operator with very little skill to set up a machine and test at quick rates, Mitchell said. The unit can be adjusted to test bottles from 2 ounces to 11/2 gallons and can test up to 6,900 containers per hour on a single head for smaller bottles.
Profile Automation has been producing leak-detection machines since 1993. Currently, the company has four employees.
