Getting up-to-date on new technology at K

Düsseldorf, Germany — More than a dozen employees of Evco Plastics Inc. visited K 2016, looking to buy and keep up-to-date as the custom injection molder expands in the United States, Mexico and China.

And Evco officials revealed the company is planning an expansion of its MED facility in its headquarters city of DeForest, Wis., that will triple its clean room space there. MED stands for medical and electronic devices.

President Dale Evans said Evco brought 13 people to K 2016, held Oct. 19-26 in Düsseldorf. He said that is a normal-size contingent for the company in the past decade or so of K show visits.

“We rented five hotel rooms for the entire length of the show. And there's a crew that's there the first half, and another crew comes the second half,” he said.

Evco employees were looking for machinery, automation, new materials and tooling.

Three people from Evco's Mexico operations attended K 2016, and Evans said they were looking to buy eight to 10 injection molding machines. “Mexico's doing well. We're expanding down there,” he said in an interview during the K show.

Evco runs three plants in Mexico — two in Monterrey and one in Juárez. Earlier this year, the company added two big presses with clamping forces of 2,500 tons to its stable of machines in Mexico. And Evans said Juarez has a 3,000-ton press.

Evco does some automotive molding in Mexico, but not that much. Having the large-tonnage machines keeps the phone ringing, Evans said.

“There's not a lot of people with big machines in Mexico that are non-automotive,” he said. “So there's demand.”

Evans said non-automotive custom molding work in Mexico includes all-terrain vehicles, appliance, lighting and industrial.

A limiting factor for big-part molding, he said, is the lack of mold makers in Mexico.

“In many cases, you got a big mold down there, if something goes wrong with it, you got to ship it over the border to get it fixed,” a major expense, he said. “We have our own tooling operations where we can do some of that, but really major things, you've got to have relationships with other mold-builders.”

Anna Evans Bartz, marketing director, said the 34,000-square-foot MED plant in DeForest will get a 50,000-square-foot addition. As part of that expansion, the operation's clean room will grow from the current 10,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet, she said.

Evans said the company plans to start MED plant construction in 2017.

In China, Evco moved into its new custom-built plant in Dongguan in late 2015, Evans said. The main molding area is an ISO Class 8 clean room for medical devices.

“We're running lights out in some applications. Over weekends, or second and third shift, there's nobody in the molding facility,” he said.

Evans said business is going well in China.

“All this year, 2016, we've been adding products, filling it up some more,” he said. “We have room for another 15 machines there. So we could almost double the size.”

Back in the United States, Evco's 38,000-square-foot expansion of its Calhoun, Ga., factory is now running, with two 3,300-ton Ube injection molding machines. Evco announced the addition in 2015, but Evans said they discovered soil problems, which delayed the project and added cost.

The giant Ube presses had to be stored at the port until the building was ready, then got installed at the Calhoun plant.

Calhoun now has six large-tonnage machines, defined as 1,000 tons or larger, said Bartz.