The return of HPM's big presses

MARION, OHIO — HPM is back in big injection molding machines.

HPM North America Corp. is introducing two-platen injection presses, dubbed the HS-II. The company will run parts on one of the new two-platen HPMs, with 1,100 tons of clamping force, at NPE 2015.

Also at NPE, HPM will roll out an all-electric machine, showing a 260-ton press in Orlando, Fla..

HPM presses are manufactured in China by its parent company, Guangdong Yizumi Precision Machinery Co. Ltd. Yizumi bought the intellectual property of HPM in 2011 at an auction held at the closed-down machinery plant in Mount Gilead, Ohio. HPM North America is in nearby Marion, Ohio.

The first series of presses from the new HPM, the HST line, tops out at 650 tons. The HS-II will go up to 3,500 tons. HPM North America technicians are completing the 1,100-ton machine for NPE at their operation in Marion.

“Historically, HPM always competed pretty well in large-tonnage machines. So we see the HS-II product line as very important,” said John Beary, general manager of sales and marketing at HPM North America.

So far, HPM North America has sold six injection molding presses. Customers include Pleasant Precision Inc. in Kenton, Ohio, and Injection Technologies Inc. in Windsor, Ontario.

Yizumi builds the presses according to HPM specifications. “They meet all North American standards,” President William Flickinger said. “We have North American control systems on the machines. And we also do all the programming of the control system for these machines.”

The HPM machines have Eurotherm controllers. To beef up its controls expertise, HPM bought a Eurotherm distributor, DL Hubbell Controls, in November — bringing Dave Hubbell back to HPM, where he runs HPM's controls retrofit group.

Flickinger said HPM works with Yizumi, which makes injection presses for the China market, to target the HPM market.

“We are revising the wiring to better meet North American standards. And we're actually rewiring the machines here prior to them going out,” he said. “The second thing we are doing is, Dave Hubbell is rewriting the controls and the control screens on the machine, to make them more suitable to the North American market, more user-friendly.”

That control system will be displayed at NPE 2015.

HPM North America now employs 21 people in Marion, at two office buildings totaling 10,000 square feet and a 35,000-square-foot plant. The plant, with a high-bay, is located in the Marion Industrial Center, a renovated former U.S. Army complex with more than 2 million total square feet of space. The sprawling facility is a center for intermodal shipping.

HPM forecasts the number of injection molding presses it will sell (Yizumi also builds HPM die-casting machines). Yizumi ships the machines by ocean to a U.S. port, where the containers get loaded onto a train bound for Columbus, Ohio. There, the containers are moved onto trucks to HPM's loading dock in Marion.

“We place purchase orders with Yizumi. When a customer buys from us, they're not buying from Yizumi, they're buying from HPM North America,” Flickinger said. HPM North America recently installed a video conference system to better communicate with Yizumi in China.

The plant area includes a showroom.

Yizumi is based on Shunde, China. To fund fast growth of injection presses and die-casting machines, and expand into automation equipment, Yizumi officials are planning an initial public offering on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in late 2015.

Meanwhile in Marion, Beary said HPM North America is doing a solid parts and service business for the thousands of HPMs still running in North America. Beary said the company has a big opportunity for replacement machines, especially now that it can offer large-tonnage presses.

Flickinger said NPE 2015 will be a key trade show, signaling the company is back with a full line of machines.

“The other thing that works to our advantage with our partnership with Yizumi is, we can offer customers machines that give them new technology, but can be very attractively priced. Whereas in the past they may have rebuilt older machines,” Flickinger said. “Now they can truly look at replacing them with a new machine, and with a new warranty on the machine.”