Toolmaker Cammand moving to larger site
ROMEO, MICH. - Mold maker Cammand Machining LLC is preparing to move into a space that will double its existing size. The firm also plans to add employees and equipment.
The company specializes in contour milling and three-dimensional surfacing for molds used in the auto industry, using upgraded software and equipment to turn out the fine detail on molds that otherwise would require use of an electric discharge machine. At its new home in Romeo, the company will add a gun drill for water lines, said owner Clarence Meltzer.
Cammand now operates from a 7,000-square-foot facility in the Detroit suburb of Chesterfield Township. Meltzer expects to move into the $1.3 million, 14,000-square-foot site in Romeo by January.
He also will add two employees to the current roster of 10 at Cammand, with the potential to bring in more people and equipment if business grows.
Plasdan contracts with N. American rep
ROCHESTER, MICH. - Plasdan Group, a Portuguese multimaterial mold-making specialist, is moving into North America through a contract with a Michigan firm.
Multiject LLC of Rochester will represent Plasdan's mold-making and injection molding machinery business in North America as well as provide planning advice for molders. Plasdan's products now are available in Europe and Brazil.
Plasdan, based in Marinha Grande, Portugal, builds and designs injection molding systems, rotary tables and mold-articulation components, including a line of electric and hydraulic injection units for existing presses.
The company will be able to provide individual parts or complete turnkey molds and designs, said Multiject President Jack Elder in a Sept. 7 telephone interview.
Concor teams with German screw maker
HAYWARD, WIS. - Concor Tool and Machine Inc. is bolstering its heavy-duty screw and barrel business with an alliance with Reiloy Metall GmbH of Troisdorf, Germany.
Reiloy will supply Concor with wear-resistant screw and barrel blanks that Concor will machine and sell to the U.S. plastics industry. Reiloy, a division of Reifenhauser Group of Troisdorf, has been making bimetallic screws and barrels for injection molding and extrusion original equipment manufacturers in Europe for more than 30 years.
An advantage of sourcing from Reiloy is that the German company induction hardens its blanks, according to Concor spokesman Steve Gerich. That process causes less internal stress and produces straighter, truer screws and barrels, compared with products made from furnace-hardened blanks, he said in a telephone interview from Concor's 50-person operation in Hayward.
Until recently Reiloy was not very active in North America. Earlier this year, Westland Corp. of Witchita, Kan., began making bimetallic barrels from Reiloy blanks.
Concor sells its bimetallic barrels and screws for wear- and heat-resistant use in injection molding and extrusion machines.
Expanding Kibbechem acquires equipment
ELKHART, IND. - Kibbechem Inc., a manufacturer of blowing agents and colorants, keeps on expanding.
The company already owned two facilities in Elkhart when it purchased a 20,000-square-foot site late last year, said owner Glen Kibbe in a phone interview Aug. 17. The new site currently is used for storage, but will house the company's liquid titanium unit in the near future.
The company also recently acquired equipment. In the past year, it purchased three extruders from Polytruder Extruder Corp. and two pelletizers fromDynisco LLC. Together, the machines cost about $1 million, said Kibbechem sales manager Rick Mann.
Kibbechem has added 10 employees to accommodate the growth, bringing its workforce to 46.
Kibbe estimates his company's 2004 sales at $17 million. ``We've typically grown about 50 percent a year,'' he said.
Kibbe lives in Nevada, because he intended to start a division there. But Kibbechem has been growing so quickly in Indiana that he did not have the opportunity to lay roots elsewhere, he said.
The firm's other sites in Elkhart are 84,000 and 18,000 square feet.
Briefly ...
* Parkinson Technologies Inc. of Woonsocket, R.I. - which supplies Marshall and Williams film and sheet orientation equipment - has created a partnership with polylactic acid resin maker NatureWorks LLC of Minnetonka, Minn., to promote PLA as a renewable resource for plastic packaging containers.
