Tech Molded Plastics Inc. has doubled its footprint by acquiring a building next to its manufacturing complex in Meadville, Pa.
The company has invested more than $1.5 million to buy the building and make improvements to prepare it for specialized molding operations in a clean, climate-controlled environment to make medical, automotive and electronics products, including overmolding close-tolerance, thin-wall connectors.
That follows the investment of more than $1 million in 2010 for improvements in plasticizing technology, training and computerized monitoring of plastics processing.
The company will link the two molding buildings with a corridor.
Newly elected Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., visited the company Feb. 22.
Buying the facility, formerly owned by Trojan Inc.'s DIC Tool Division, gives Tech Molded Plastics a total of 92,000 square feet of space in Meadville. The family-owned business employs more than 100 people and runs 29 injection molding machines with clamping force of 40-309 tons.
Mark Hanaway, vice president, said lighting components maker DIC Tool has consolidated its manufacturing in another building in Meadville. That freed up the space next to Tech Molded Plastics.
He said two 80-ton Nissei presses should arrive in early March. The company will buy four to six more machines when the building is modified to support molding systems with technology for mold-cavity pressure sensing.
Tech Molded President and CEO Scott Hanaway said the company added 28 full-time employees in 2010, and will add 27 more during the next few months for the facility expansion.
Scott Hanaway is “cautiously optimistic” about 2011, although significant challenges remain. “There is a lot of uncertainty for sustainable economic recovery due to inflation, spikes in the resin markets due to foreign oil concerns, and a number of legislative issues like pending tax hikes and health-care requirements,” he said in a news release. “The cloud of issues is a distraction from greater advances in hiring and reinvestment.”
He delivered that message to Toomey, noting that Tech Molded Plastics has been actively courted to relocate to other states and low-cost offshore countries: “Our elected officials need to remain focused on increasing America's competitiveness in the world to create jobs at home,” he said.