Milacron Inc. is beefing up its machine remanufacturing business by introducing on-site rebuilding for Cincinnati Milacron-brand injection presses and opening an operation in Mexico.
Milacron generates $20 million in annual sales from the contract services activities, according to Robert Rabe, business unit manager for the Applied Technologies businesses, which include contract services.
At a pre-NPE news conference in Batavia, Milacron announced it has set up remanufacturing in one of the company's industrial fluids plants in Queretaro, Mexico. ``We're the first [machinery original equipment manufacturer] to open a plant in Mexico to do remanufacturing,'' Rabe said.
Milacron has received its first two orders for the Mexican operation. Doing the work locally avoids transporting the machines and problems with moving presses across the border to ship them to Batavia.
For the first two presses, ``the customer says that his facility is so tight that doing the work on-site would be difficult,'' said Mark Ruberg, aftermarket development director.
But for many North American customers, on-site remanufacturing is an attractive option, to save time and money by eliminating rigging and trucking the injection press to Milacron. The press also gets back into service sooner.
``On a 1,500-ton press, transport can cost $150,000 and take three weeks or more coming and going, Ruberg said.