Dana Darley, former president of Kreyenborg Industries USA Inc., has founded Extrusion Auxiliary Services Inc., a consulting and technical assistance firm.
EAS, based in Dacula, evaluates manufacturing equipment. ``We're 100 percent on the customer's side, totally unbiased,'' Darley said.
Many extruders can benefit from better understanding of new and different equipment technologies available today, Darley said. ``What I've seen happen is, the customers' own internal capabilities become more and more diminished. They know a lot about the process, but they don't know the equipment,'' he said.
Darley most recently was president of Lawrenceville, Ga.-based Kreyenborg Industries, the U.S. branch of German filtration equipment maker Kreyenborg GmbH. He was named president in early 2003.
Darley and Tim O'Haren, a research consultant with 25 years of experience in the extrusion industry, are partners in EAS. O'Haren founded Bovram Screen Changers Inc. in the early 1990s and has worked for Precision Equipment Inc., a distributor of screen changers. O'Haren developed his own line of continuous, piston-type screen changers for Bovram.
Future plans include training programs and one-day seminars to instruct workers in the technical aspects of the extrusion auxiliary industry.
``We want to fill that gap between the customer and the vendor,'' Darley said.