Universal Bearings buys Precision Plastic
BREMEN, IND. — Metal bearings and components maker Universal Bearings LLC is expanding into plastics with its acquisition of Precision Plastic & Die Co.
Universal Bearings of Bremen bought the assets of Ithaca, Mich.-based Precision Plastic and is taking over manufacturing there. It has retained the 12 employees in Ithaca, said David Ketcham, vice president of finance and administration, in an Aug. 3 phone interview. The firms did not disclose a purchase price.
Universal uses some plastic as a retainer in a bearing product, but bought the material from an outside supplier, Ketcham said. Precision adds in-house capabilities in multiple materials that Universal can offer to its automotive and commercial-truck customers. Precision also adds markets outside transportation.
Universal has been part of South Korea's Hanwha Group since 1991. It employs about 250 in Bremen.
Precision Plastic does injection and compression molding to make auto interior and transmission parts, and also serves the military and housewares industries.
GTI builds $21.4 million plant in Indiana
GREENVILLE, OHIO — Honda supplier Greenville Technology Inc. will invest $21.4 million in a new injection molding plant in Anderson, Ind., that will employ 325 by 2016.
The state of Indiana announced the plans July 24. The state will provide up to $1.7 million in tax credits and another $100,000 in training grants, depending on GTI's employment base.
GTI is the North American-based subsidiary of Moriroku Technology Co. Ltd. of Tokyo; it opened in Greenville in 1987. Officials said the site has reached production capacity while a tight labor market near Greenville also prompted the move to Indiana.
Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. Ltd. said earlier this month that it is expanding its own manufacturing in Indiana, spending $40 million to boost capacity at its Greensburg assembly plant.
GTI already has 840 employees in Ohio, a sales and technical office in Marysville, Ohio, and sister plants in Listowel, Ontario, and Rainsville, Ala. The company is accepting resumes online.
The plant will cover 150,000 square feet and produce 500,000 parts during its first year. Startup is expected by January.
Overhead crane falls on Rexam workers
EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, MO. — One man was killed and another injured in a July 20 industrial accident at a Rexam plc plant in Excelsior Springs.
A 6,000-pound overhead crane, used to move equipment, fell on the two plant employees. Robert Walker, 55, died instantly. The other employee, a 51-year-old man, suffered severe injuries, said Lt. Clint Reno of the Excelsior Springs Police Department.
Officials believe the incident was accidental.
“Rexam's first priority is the safety and wellness of our people and their families,” said Greg Brooke, vice president of corporate affairs for Rexam's U.S. operations, by phone.
The accident is under investigation. Rexam “will be implementing any next steps to assure the safety of our people going forward,” Brooke said.
The 117,000-square-foot plant employs 150 and makes plastic packaging for Rexam's home and personal-care division, he said.
The plant is part of the company's divestiture of its personal-care division, he said, adding that the facility remains a Rexam plant until the sale closes, probably later this year.
Rexam is based in London.
Man dies in accident at recycling plant
ADDISON, MICH. — The death of a 27-year-old man who fell into an industrial grinding machine July 25 forced a plastics materials recycling plant in Addison to close its doors until July 30.
Hector Fermin Campos of Adrian, Mich., an employee of Next Specialty Resins Inc., was in the process of operating the grinder before the accident, MLive.com reported.
Campos had been with the company for four years. He was not a grinder operator, the company told MLive, but rather a support person who was responsible for taking scrap to the grinder.
“It was a very tragic death,” Sharon Uyttenhove, factory human resources and accounting manager, told the news organization.
The Michigan State Police and the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fall, the news organization said. The company, which has been at the location for 16 years, said it and its workers are fully cooperating with the investigation.
Next Specialty is based in Toledo, Ohio.
