ORLANDO, FLA. — With a new facility under construction in Wichita, Kan., and a Weingartner machining center on order, Reiloy Westland Corp. is gearing up to build even bigger screws and barrels, especially for the extrusion market.
“This will allow us to do bigger parts and take our technology to extrusion,” said Reiloy Westland President Dave Larson, in an interview at NPE 2015 in Orlando.
“The majority of our focus has been on injection molding, but now that we are part of Reifenhauser, the technology and knowledge will allow us to take ours with theirs to the extrusion market,” he said.
The company has started construction on a 55,000-square-foot facility with an anticipated opening on June 15. The company currently has 62 employees at its 27,000-square-foot site.
Reiloy is awaiting delivery of a Weingartner mpmc 600-6000 machine, which Larson said will be the first to be delivered to North America. The machine will arrive in June.
“It can machine 7 meters — previously our biggest was 4 meters,” he said, noting that length had been a limiting factor in the past.
The 5-axis, multipurpose machining center will be used for both screws and barrels. The machine will be a focal point for the new facility, which is being designed to take advantage of lean manufacturing principles and will be 5S and ISO certified.
Larson expects the “majority of growth over the next three years to come from extrusion.”
The company was started in 1969 and was originally known as CAC Tool. It later became Westland Corp. and about 2 ½ years ago was acquired by Reifenhauser. Larson said that the integration is going well and that Reifenhauser will also be in the new building.
Reifenhauser Group is in Troisdorf, Germany, and makes machinery for blown and cast film, thermoforming and extrusion.