Disk crushes technician at Beckenbach
YORK, S.C. - An Engel service technician was killed Aug. 13 while working on an injection molding machine at automotive molder and mold maker Beckenbach USA Inc. in York.
Wade Scharff, 54, of Spartanburg, S.C., died before an emergency squad arrived at the plant, according to Sabrina Gast, interim York County coroner. The worker was repairing a 350-ton molding machine when a large metal disk fell, crushing him, she said in a telephone interview.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was on the scene the following day to investigate the death, said a Beckenbach spokeswoman. She referred other questions to Engel Machinery Inc. in York, Pa.
Engel's news release said only that the incident happened while Scharff was on a service call to Beckenbach. No further details will be available until OSHA and local authorities complete their investigation, Engel said.
Beckenbach is a subsidiary of Beckenbach GmbH of Schönau, Germany. The company specializes in automotive sealing systems and multimaterial injection molding.
B&B to open facility in Columbus, Ohio
FONTANA, CALIF. - B&B Plastics Recycling is opening a facility in Columbus, Ohio, to be closer to Eastern customers.
The Fontana firm is investing about $1.7 million in the project, including the purchase of a building and new equipment, said purchasing agent Hugo Guzman. B&B opened the Columbus operation in early August and has been installing equipment there since then to ramp up production.
The Columbus site ``will open our doors'' to industrial scrap sources in the East, Guzman said in a telephone interview. Many scrap sources near Columbus already are clients for B&B's other recycling facilities: two plants in California and one each in Texas and Mexico.
B&B acquired an 88,000-square-foot building in Columbus and is equipping it with grinders, shredders and three extruders. The equipment is a mix of newly purchased machinery and items shipped from other B&B plants. The firm does custom grinding, pelletizing and compounding of additives, colors and reinforcements. Much of its volume comprises engineering grades of materials.
C&A: Closing of Tenn. plant `unexpected'
SOUTHFIELD, MICH. - Collins & Aikman Corp. will close its Athens, Tenn., injection molding operation, despite hopes that the firm would be able to sell it and keep the plant in business under another owner.
The site was on a list of plants expected to sell to Cadence Innovation LLC, but Southfield-based C&A and Cadence could not come to an agreement on the Athens plant, and no other buyers have come forward, said C&A spokesman David Youngman.
``This was unexpected and unforeseeable,'' he said.
The closing, set for Aug. 31, will cut about 450 jobs.
Talks are continuing to sell other sites, both with Troy, Mich.-based Cadence and other potential buyers, he said.
Collins & Aikman has been operating in bankruptcy since May 2005. Earlier this year it announced plans to sell off all of its operations.
Mobis adding jobs in factory expansion
MONTGOMERY, ALA. - Mobis Alabama LLC will expand its Montgomery plant in 2008 to prepare for a new business molding bumper fascia and instrument panels for South Korean automaker Kia Motors Corp.'s new Georgia assembly plant.
The development is part of a $55.6 million expansion at Mobis Alabama announced Aug. 15 that also will add 141 jobs to the 825 already in Montgomery. The work also will include construction of a 130,000-square-foot distribution center.
Mobis, part of South Korean auto supplier Hyundai Mobis, first opened in 2005 to supply interior trim for Hyundai Motor Co.'s assembly plant in Montgomery. Hyundai is Hyundai Mobis' largest shareholder.
The expansion will include injection molding and paint lines for bumper fascia specifically for Kia's plant, now under construction in nearby West Point, Ga. Full production of the new Mobis lines will begin in 2009.
