Three executives have purchased twin-screw extruder maker Theysohn Extrusionstechnik GmbH and its extrusion components subsidiary, Theysohn Extruder-Komponenten Salzgitter GmbH.
The new owners are managers: Michael Döring, who has run Theysohn for a number of years, Uwe Laganke and Torsten Grosser. The three men bought Theysohn Extrusionstechnik from HTI High Tech Industries AG earlier this year.
Theysohn's Fort Worth, Texas-based representative, Extrusion Concepts LLC, will be renamed Theysohn North America, owned by plastics industry veterans Peter Heilmayr and Larry Kuykendall.
Heilmayr said there are more than 60 Theysohn counter-rotating twin-screw extruders operating at U.S. pipe plants.
“Theysohn America — Extrusion Concepts — has really concentrated on PVC pipe. But we also have been selling extruders and barrels and screws to siding manufacturers, sheet manufacturers and profile manufacturers,” Heilmayr said.
Theysohn Extrusionstechnik, based in Korneuburg, Austria, near Vienna, makes counter-rotating twin-screw extruders, both conical extruders and parallel twin-screw extruders. The components operation, in Salzgitter, Germany, makes screws, barrels and other components for both counter- and co-rotating extruders of any brand.
Heilmayr said the Salzgitter operation's biggest market is components for counter-rotating extruders, which are used for PVC pipe, profiles and siding. Co-rotating extruders go into the smaller compounding and pelletizing market, he said.
Theysohn introduced its line of counter-rotating twins, the TTS, TTM and CON, in the early 2000s.
Heilmayr was involved in twin-screw extruders in the early days, launching his career in 1961 as a consultant to the Wilhelm Anger Co. in Vienna, Austria. He held management positions at major machinery suppliers and extrusion companies, including Wilhelm Anger, CertainTeed Products Corp., Robintech Inc., American Maplan Corp., Vinyl Extrusion Technologies Inc. and Theysohn.
While working at Wilhelm Anger, Heilmayr helped install the first Anger extruders in the United States at early PVC pipe extruders Carlon Products Corp. and Johns Manville Corp. He said the Anger company had a close cooperation with Theysohn, which at that time mainly produced PVC sheet dies but grew into one of the largest suppliers of screws and barrels to twin-screw machinery makers and extrusion companies.
Heilmayr is managing director of Theysohn North America. Kuykendall is managing partner.
In a career that began in 1977, Kuykendall, a chemist, has worked in sales and account management at BASF and Morton International. He also is president of Vinyl Additives & Equipment Inc.
