A new automated work cell containing a 400-ton Toyo press is improving efficiency at injection molder Comor Inc.
``This allows us to do more with the people we have,'' said Bob Deets, president and chief executive officer.
The cell was installed in mid-April and is set up with an AEC beam robot, a custom-made stage and a Fanuc robot that inspects and assembles each part.
The setup allows the machinery to run 24 hours a day making ladder parts.
The purchase marks the first automated cell for Comor, which now has 23 presses with clamping forces of 90-770 tons.
In the past eight years, the company has boosted its number of injection molding presses from 13 and expanded its plant to 27,000 square feet.
The company employs 60.
Comor molds proprietary advertising items such as clipboards, fly swatters, clips, rain gauges and thermometers.
The firm also makes ladder components, flashlight bodies and parts.
Deets said the company had $6.5 million in sales last year and is hoping to boost that figure to $7 million this year. Comor was started in 1986 by Deets' late father, Robert Deets.
It is a sister company to two other Cochranton businesses - Morco Inc., an advertising specialty company, and Coinco Inc., a metal stamper and a tool and die company.