CHICAGO (Aug. 21, 4:20 p.m. EDT) — MGS Manufacturing Group has built a reputation as a mold designer and builder, an injection molder and a company that builds portable injection units and rotary platens for the red-hot field of multicomponent molding. You could add “machinery maker” after touring the company's booth at NPE 2006 in Chicago.
Standing in the booth was an unusual-looking insert molding machine with 35 tons of clamping force. It marked the first trade-show display of an MGS-made molding machine, said John Hahn, vice president of engineering.
Hahn said MGS designed the press especially for a customer that makes automotive drive shafts. The customer, which Hahn would not identify, loads U-joints into the press, which molds a retaining ring into the large metal part.
Hahn said MGS can make specialty insert presses with clamping forces of 10-120 tons.
MGS has no plans to compete against the mainstream injection press builders, said John Berg, marketing director of the company in Germantown, Wis.
“One of our niches has been that we are willing to build one machine for a customer, and we have heard many comments from visitors to our booth that one of the reasons they became aware of us was by asking around,” Berg said. They found traditional manufacturers aren't interested in making one or two machines. “MGS is interested.”
Also at its booth, MGS molded a three-component medical feeding-tube assembly. The first shot injected the polycarbonate body, then the mold rotated 180 degrees to the second position, where the press molded on a polypropylene valve part and a fitting of thermoplastic elastomer.
MGS officials also discussed technology for molding-in color. Hahn said the company has custom-made equipment for molding automotive exterior trim, but he would not name the customer. The process is called injection shuttle compression. First, the customer injects a thermoplastic preform into an open mold. Then the mold is shuttled into a hydraulic press, similar to compression molding. One injection unit can serve several molds, according to MGS.