Milacron Inc. plans to make extruders at its plant in India, as a springboard to boosting extruder sales in Europe, Asia, Africa and other regions, according to a top executive.
Bob Simpson, president of global plastics machinery for Milacron, said the firm's factory in Ahmedabad, India, built its first extruder - a single-screw model - and shipped it in September to Milacron's plant in Batavia, Ohio.
``We're testing it, making sure that it's the same quality, the same type of craftsmanship,'' Simpson said Oct. 24 at K 2007 in Dusseldorf.
Milacron already has been expanding its manufacturing of the core Indian-plant product, injection molding machines. Now the company will add extruders and blow molding machines to the mix from Ahmedabad.
The reason? Growing global demand for Milacron extruders. Milacron already has set up a demonstration laboratory in Magenta, Italy, at the Uniloy Milacron site, and another one in Shanghai, at Conair Group Inc.'s factory there. Simpson said the company plans to open another lab in India.
``The number of requests that we're getting, it would behoove us to have some examples and be able to run test samples in different parts of the world,'' he said.
Trial runs are especially important to customers in plastic composite deck boards, so they can try different blends of wood flour, and exotic materials such as rice hulls, Simpson said.
Milacron also has sold its first India-built blow molding machine to a customer in India, according to Simpson.