Currier Plastics Inc. is spending more than $2 million to add capacity across all processes that it offers, including blow molding, injection blow molding and injection molding.
The company added an Automa blow molding machine and is planning to add two more Aoki injection stretch blow molding machines. It started the year with three new Negri Bossi injection presses.
“This equipment gives us higher capacity, but we're not using the same space for the same thing. We can now double the throughput of the machines [as compared to the older machines],” Max Leone, vice president of business development, said in a telephone interview.
Currier operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week out of a 65,000-square-foot facility in central New York. It has about 100 employees and is considering further expansion by moving some of its offices to a nearby 50,000-square-foot building that it currently uses as warehouse space.
The Auburn, N.Y.-based company custom molds varied products including plastic packaging for amenities and personal-care products, household consumables and medical measurement devices.
Overall, it operates 40 machines and has areas logistically set up for the three processes that it uses.
It added its second Automa blow molding machine in less than a year when it recently installed an AT400D. It joins a larger AT700D that was added in July.
Steve Crawford, who was recently promoted to blow molding manager, said in a news release that the new Automa doubles the firm's capacity in the amenity market, and will allow it to make lightweight bottles with thinner walls.
Currier also is doubling the number of Aoki injection stretch blow molding machines that it uses — it will have four by end of the June. Steve Valentino, who was promoted to molding manager, said the new machines are needed to address growth in the PET container market.
The three Negri Bossi machines range from 400-500 tons of clamping force. They are fully automated and help Currier address the cap and closure market, allowing for higher cavitation and larger-diameter lids.
Leone said the expansion allows Currier engineers and processors to be in the same building. As an example, he said that they were able to make caps and bottles in the same building.
Currier was founded in 1982 by the late Raymond Currier, an engineer that bought two injection molding machines to form his own business. His son, John Currier, is currently the company's president.
Leone said the company works with its community and has conducted tours of its plant for elementary school students.