Wheel covers drive growth for thermoformer Amros

CLEVELAND — Custom thermoformer Amros Industries Inc. has doubled in size over the past several years, thanks to a high-volume business: Protective wheel covers for new cars.

Amros ships the covers to car assembly plants, where they get snapped onto the wheels before shipment. The dealership removes them and installs the hubcaps.

Amros President Gregory Shteyngarts filed for U.S. patent on the tooling apparatus to make the protective cover in August. The patent is pending.

The key design innovation is the molded part that fits into the cylindrical hub in the center of the wheel. Shteyngarts developed a fixture mounted on the mold with metal projections — also called “grippers” and “fingers” in the patent — that extend outward. This creates notched sections on the finished cover that fit securely into the wheel's center hole.

After each cover is thermoformed, from PVC sheet, the projected fingers retract so the part can be removed from the mold. Amros machines all components of the cam-type mechanism, which uses air pressure and vacuum to actuate the device.

Shteyngarts said Amros has formed more than 10 million covers since production began in 2012. The company has steadily added sizes, and now turns out covers for wheels of diameters from 16 to 21 inches, said Angie Helcbergier, vice president of operations.

The wheel covers are running on seven of the 17 thermoforming machines at Amros' plant in Cleveland.

Five years ago, Amros employed 23 people and generated sales of $4.6 million. According to Shteyngarts, the company now employs 45 and generates about $10 million in annual sales. The company added a second shift.

He outlined how Amros got the job, in an interview at the factory.

Other plastics processors had tried to make a thermoformed wheel cover, but had some problems.

“So in 2012, one of the Tier 1 suppliers came to us with a hand-made prototype and was asking us if we can make these pieces for a production run,” he said.

Amros developed a prototype and it looked good. The company started making molds for the different sizes of wheels and hubs. Production began in the fall of 2012.

Shteyngarts declined to identify the Tier 1 supplier or the automaker that uses Amros' wheel covers. He said Amros is considered an approved location of the Tier 1 supplier.

Other automakers are interested in the covers, he said.

Because of the automotive work, the custom thermoformer became certified to ISO 9001:2008. ISO “gives us the ability to more precisely control the quality,” Shteyngarts said. Amros already had its own computerized production monitoring and control system, developed in 2003.

Amros also developed its own tests for the wheel covers, simulating road vibration on a truck, and air blowing and pulling forces to make sure the covers stay on tight.

Amros also built equipment to spray a coating around the outer edge of the cover, to protect the wheel. One of the cells uses a five-axis robot.

The covers go over the area of the hub. They do not touch the tire.

“The smart car dealers are keeping them on the car. And when they have to polish the tires, they are keeping the cover on because it gives them a perfect masking surface” Shteyngarts said.

He had a pleasant surprise driving on the freeway during a harsh Cleveland winter. The roads were snow covered and nasty, every car filthy with road salt. Then a dealership car drove past with Amros wheel covers in place — keeping the wheels perfectly clean.

It was a Cleveland moment. A plastics moment.