Main Tape Co. Inc. consolidates in N.J.
CRANBURY, N.J. - Main Tape Co. Inc. has consolidated manufacturing in its Cranbury facility.
The 116,000-square-foot Cranbury plant now runs five coaters and eight slitters. It can coat films as wide as 108 inches, the firm said in a news release.
The site employs about 150, including 40 who joined after Main Tape closed its Plymouth, Wis., operation early this year because of difficult market conditions.
The company makes protective plastic films and tapes for automotive, electronics, aerospace and other industries. It buys polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester and other films as well as paper to do its converting. Its majority owner is Calvert Street Capital Partners of Baltimore.
Door maker Jeld-Wen acquires equipment
KLAMATH FALLS, ORE. - Klamath Falls-based window, door and millwork maker Jeld-Wen Inc. has added equipment that will enhance its ability to compression mold its new line of long-fiber-reinforced polyurethane doors.
Jeld-Wen recently bought Krauss-Maffei machines but declined to disclose how many or at which plant they're being used.
Krauss-Maffei announced the purchases in a news release.
The PUR-Fiber fiberglass door technology uses 35 percent fiberglass content, vs. 10-12 percent industrywide, according to a Jeld-Wen news release.
Tamko alters name to reflect product scope
JOPLIN, MO. - Tamko Roofing Products Inc. is changing its name to Tamko Building Products Inc. effective June 1, the company announced April 17.
Tamko manufactures EverGrain- and Elements-brand wood-plastic composite decking, as well numerous roofing and other building products. The Joplin company said the new name reflects its products and services.
Albany Engineered purchases Aztex Inc.
ALBANY, N.Y. - Albany Engineered Composites has broadened its technology base by acquiring Aztex Inc.
Albany Engineered specializes in advanced composites and textile preforms for aerospace applications. Aztex's products include Z-Fiber, a lightweight reinforcement and fastener system, and X-Cor and K-Cor lightweight, structural core materials that Albany Engineered claims are stronger and lighter than honeycomb.
Albany focuses on advanced three-dimensional resin transfer molding of preforms and engineered composite structures.
Several key Aztex personnel have decided to join Albany.
Aztex's customer list includes most major aircraft companies in North America and Europe, including Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Corp. and Aerospatiale.
Albany Engineered of Albany paid an undisclosed amount for Aztex on April 7. During the next several months it will relocate Aztex's manufacturing operations from Waltham, Mass., to Mansfield, Mass., where Albany Engineered's parent, Albany International, runs a technology center.
Albany Engineered is the recently adopted name of the combined businesses of Albany International Techniweave Inc. and Texas Composite Inc.
Key Safety, Chery to develop air bags
STERLING HEIGHTS, MICH. - Auto supplier Key Safety Systems Inc. has an agreement with Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co. to help it develop air bags and seat belts that will meet requirements for cars sold in North America and Europe.
The memorandum of understanding, announced April 25 between Sterling Heights-based Key and Chery of Wuhu, China, will allow Key to boost its business in Asia, while Chery will have a partner as it works to make vehicles it can sell to a wider audience.
Key, which uses plastics in seat-belt assemblies, steering wheels and air-bag covers, recently opened a $30 million technology and manufacturing center in Shanghai. It has set a goal of having 25 percent of its global sales from Asia by 2009. Asia currently makes up 18 percent of its $1.05 billion in sales.
Chery, meanwhile, has been laying the groundwork to begin selling its inexpensive cars in the United States and Europe, but it must meet various federal safety and emissions requirements.
PGM Plastics adds clean room in Mass.
FITCHBURG, MASS. - PGM Plastics Inc. is getting serious about the medical and life-science industries, creating a clean room area along with a separate business unit.
The division will be called PGM Medical Manufacturing and will be housed at the 80,000-square-foot PGM complex in Fitchburg. Work on the project started at the beginning of the year, and now the area is fully functional.
``What we've set up is a separate 7,000 square feet of clean room space for injection molding and contract manufacturing. We're moving from white room to clean room status,'' said Kevin Durand, general manager of PGM Medical Manufacturing.
The work cell features 10 Roboshot electric presses with clamping forces of 165-330 tons. It includes room for as many as four more small-tonnage electric machines.
Durand, who has 20 years of experience in medical-device manufacturing, joined the company six months ago and is optimistic about the prospects.
PGM is ISO 9001:2000 certified and meets Food and Drug Administration requirements for component manufacturing.
The company, founded in 1996, has built its base on electrical, consumer and industrial work.
Florikan molding recycled flower pots
SARASOTA, FLA. - A Sarasota horticultural firm looking to integrate vertically recently began commercial production at its newly constructed blow molding plant in Sebring, Fla.
Florikan Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture Corp., a long-time fertilizer manufacturer, now is blow molding thin-wall nursery pots made of recycled high density polyethylene in 8- to 12-inch diameters. They are being marketed under the Amerikan brand name and sell for 25-30 cents per pot. Amerikan LLC is a joint venture between Florikan and ITML Horticultural Products Inc. of Brantford, Ontario.
There are two lines running now, making 3-gallon pots. A third line will begin operating this summer and a fourth next year. At capacity, the new 30,000-square-foot plant in central Florida will employ about 35 people.
According to a Florikan news release, the company received more than $1 million in grant money from various Florida agencies to help build the plant. Florikan generates about $60 million in annual sales, according to the company.
Thai firm plans to add presses pending deal
PATHUM THANI, THAILAND - Salee Industry Public Co. Ltd. of Pathum Thani is preparing to add six new injection molding machines in the third quarter, pending confirmation of a major contract to make connectors for electronics industries.
Salee is hoping to finalize the contract within the second quarter of this year, said its divisional manager for investor relations, Supoj Soontarinka.
He estimated Salee will invest 20 million baht ($514,000) in the project. The company currently has 20 injection presses.
Salee projected a 30 percent increase in sales for this year to 500 million baht ($13 million).
Next Generation adds blown film capacity
Lexington, Ohio - Next Generation Films Inc. of Lexington is investing $8.5 million to expand its blown film capacity.
The company will add one three-layer Hosokawa Alpine American blown film line in May and another in August.
``We've almost doubled our size in three years,'' Chief Executive Officer Dave Frecka said by telephone.
The company recently completed a 16,000-square-foot addition, where the two new lines will be added for a total of 10 lines. Into 2007, Frecka plans to add two more lines. The firm employs 130 and has roughly $75 million in annual sales.
The company has a niche in modified-atmosphere packaging and also in house wrap.
The group's operations began in 1994 with three coextrusion lines. It has a combination of Windmoeller & Hoelscher and Alpine equipment, Frecka said. It uses winding equipment from Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc.
Film producer Pliant grows in Canada, N.Y.
SCHAUMBURG, ILL. - Film maker Pliant Corp. of Schaumburg is expanding production at its printed flexible packaging operations in Langley, British Columbia, and Macedon, N.Y.
Pliant is adding a Windmoeller & Hoelscher Optifil three-layer blown coextrusion film line, one slitter and a wicketed bag machine at its 130,000-square-foot plant in Langley, said Kevin Howard, Pliant vice president and general manager of printed products.
The firm will add an eight-color W&H flexographic printing press and a slitter to its 230,000-square-foot plant in Macedon.
Howard said continued investment in its printed flexible packaging business is part of the firm's plan.
Pliant continues to operate under Chapter 11 bankruptcy after filing for protection Jan. 3 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.
Toray invests in site to extrude PLA film
TOKYO - Japanese materials supplier Toray Industries Inc. is spending 1 billion yen ($8.5 million) on a South Korean plant to make polylactide film and sheet, to take advantage of what it said is that country's shift to bio-based plastics for takeout food containers.
Tokyo-based Toray said the 11 million-pound-per-year plant, its first commercial production of PLA film, will start operating in January at the company's joint venture with PET sheet maker Saehan Industries Inc. in Gumi, South Korea. Toray owns 90 percent of the venture.
Toray, which already makes PLA fiber and resin products, said it plans additional investments in Japan and elsewhere, with the goal of boosting its PLA-related sales to 25 billion yen ($212 million) by 2010.
Toray said the use of bio-based plastics, like corn-based PLA, is gaining momentum in Japan.
As part of its commercialization of PLA film, the company said it will introduce products using nanotechnology to combine multiple polymers at a nanoscale.
Last year, Toray announced it was developing a PLA housing for a notebook computer with Fujitsu Ltd.
The Toray Saehan Inc. operation, based in Seoul, South Korea, has about 880 employees, with sales of 661.1 billion won ($678 million) in 2005.
Briefly ...
* Seeber Röchling Automotive, part of Seeber AG & Co. KG of Mannheim, Germany, bought its 100th Engel injection press - a large-tonnage, two-platen Duo press with two injection units mounted piggyback for two-shot molding. The press is Seeber-Röchling's 50th Engel Duo press.
* Custom molder Moll Industries Inc. of Dallas has started making fan motor shroud assemblies at its Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, plant for Incheon, South Korea-based automotive components supplier Dongyang Mechatronics Corp.