Logo products injection molder Denbro Plastics Co. has moved to another plant within Toledo, Ohio, to streamline production and improve efficiency.
The new site “has much better plant layout and it's a newer facility,” explained Denbro owner Jack McKisson in a phone interview.
The new location at 8,800 square feet is similar in size to its previous one, but it has segregated molding, decoration and painting rooms, McKisson said. In a Sept. 29 interview, he said the company just moved from Progress Avenue to American Road East.
Denbro specializes in molding and decorating plastic nameplates for automotive aftermarket, industrial, recreation and advertising markets. A more efficient layout will help it expand into related markets, such as dome coating onto labels and decals.
McKisson said his firm has not chased automotive OEM markets because of the vagaries of the sector's purchasing strategies and its frustrating up and down cycles. However, Denbro is big in automotive advertising displays A long production run for the company typically is 100,000 parts.
McKisson purchased Denbro in 1993, 30 years after it was established by Bob Denison and Harlan Brown. (The company name is a contraction of the founders' surnames.) Fire destroyed the business in 1980 but it recovered and has grown by 60 percent since McKisson bought it.
“The new facility is better equipped to handle future growth of our services,” McKisson said.
Denbro runs three injection presses. Clamps up to 300 tons are needed for its volume of multi-cavity work. It employs about ten. Given the aesthetic nature of its business, Denbro employs a range of painting and decorating techniques. Customers specify a variety of resins for their jobs, including ABS, high-impact polystyrene, polyolefins and polycarbonate. For outdoor nameplates Denbro occasionally molds cellulose acetate proprionate.
Denbo's products can be found on desks, walls, trucks and cars, campers, appliances, recreational goods and other items where brand owners want to show off their logos.