Evco plans expansions in US, China, Mexico

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Evans
UPDATED — Wisconsin-based custom molder Evco Plastics Inc. is investing $12 million this year to expand large-press molding in Georgia, move its plant in China, boost machining in its home state and add injection molding machines in Mexico.

All the expansions are for existing business, Evco President Dale Evans said. The price tag also includes buying some machines to replace older equipment, he said.

Evans said about $4 million to $5 million of the total is going for a 36,000-square-foot expansion to its factory in Calhoun, Ga. When the addition is completed this fall, Calhoun will total 110,000 square feet.

Evco is adding an Ube injection press with 3,300 tons of clamping force — the largest machine so far in Calhoun.  (The company's largest press at any location is a 3,500 ton Engel installed two years ago at the factory in Oshkosh, Wis.)

“We're probably going to need another large machine in there, early next year, as well,” Evans said about the Calhoun factory. “So we're going big in the Southeast. Our largest press we have now is a 2,200-ton down there, and so this will start us in the 3,000-ton class range.”

The new two-platen Ube press is servo-hydraulic, making it about 70 percent more efficient than a standard hydraulic machine, he said.

Going above 3,000 tons will give Evco access to jobs for larger parts in the Southeastern United States “There's a lot of power-sports business in that part of the world,” he said.

That will be Evco's fourth injection press of 3,000 tons and larger. Two are in Wisconsin and one is in Juarez, Mexico.

Evans and his daughter Anna Evans Bartz, the company's marketing director, outlined the investments in an interview at NPE 2015 in Orlando. Evco is based in DeForest, Wis.

Don Loepp

Evco's headquarters plant in DeForest, Wis.

Dale Evans said the Georgia expansion is being sized to house four, 4,000-ton presses. Evco may not need to top the 4,000 mark, he said. But installing very large tonnage machines takes a lot of space, and additional spending on infrastructure improvements.

“It's not just buying the machines,” he said. “It's cranes. It's floors. It's tooling operations. Everything that goes with that, all has to get bigger.”

The presses need special floor support with extra reinforced concrete. Evco also is upgrading its tooling capacity to handle and maintain the massive molds.

In China, Evco is relocating its factory in Shenzhen to Dongguan, since the building it leases in Shenzhen is being torn down to for a large apartment building. The new building space, also leased, is under construction and should be completed this fall.

“We're putting in an ISO Class 8 clean room. And in China, we're going small,” Evans said. The company is focusing on all-electric presses from 80-250 tons.

Evans said Evco had run some larger presses in Shenzhen, but is downsizing in the press-size department.

“We're not having as much success with the larger parts, because shipping becomes a problem,” he said. Going small, and using value-added manual assembly and inspection, takes advantage of China's lower labor costs, he said — especially for mid-volume parts that get exported.

“If you're going to have a million of something, you automate it in the USA. If you're going to have a hundred thousand, well, you can't afford to pay for that high level of automation,” Evans said.

An example is plumbing supplies where you need to place O-rings, do some assembly and test every part.

Evans said the clean room also will make some parts for export, but a lot of the output will remain in the growing China market for medical parts.

“They have an aging population problem that's worse than ours. And they like the international medical stuff. So I'm looking forward to picking up some things there,” he said.

In Wisconsin, the company is buying some five-axis milling machines for making molds.

And in Mexico, Evco has ordered a 2,500-ton Engel press and is adding a large crane at its Mexican headquarters plant in Monterrey, set up to run big machines. A second plant in Monterrey, for small machines, is getting five new presses in the 100-200 ton range, Evans said, bringing the total press stable there to 25.

Evco also is buying support equipment for Mexico, such as chillers and resin silos.

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