Montrose Molders Corp. is expanding beyond its custom injection molding roots to begin offering extrusion capabilities.
The Piscataway, N.J.-based company expects two new extruders to be up and running by the end of February.
It's a complementary move for the long-standing injection molder, one that will allow Montrose to bring more business in-house.
Instead of contracting with other firms to create extruded parts used in conjunction with its injection molded offerings, the company will be able to create those products on its own.
“Just because we are custom in nature, we do a lot of different work for a lot of different industries,” said Brendan Wilson, vice president of operations. “And many of the industries that we do work for, that we do injection molding for, also use extruded parts.
“So it's been something that we've been intending to invest in for a little while. But the opportunity arose this year,” he said.
Montrose, following strong business in both 2015 and 2016, decided to take the plunge and make the investment, he said.
The company will spend about $200,000 to install two extrusion machines at its facility.
“We do a lot of point-of-purchase display trays for injection molding. A lot of those trays require corner posts. The corner posts are extruded. So by bringing in the extrusion lines themselves, we will also be able to make the posts that go with the trays,” Wilson said.
The corner posts allow the trays to create shelving units to display products.
Montrose also sees a business opportunity in producing extruded graphic channels that are used on point-of-purchase displays to hold signage, the vice president said. Those parts are currently farmed out by Montrose.
Another example of integrating extrusion with injection molding is the company's work in the cable raceway business. Montrose already makes fittings used to hide cables in offices, and now the company also will be able to make the straight stretches of channel to route and conceal the wires.
Montrose is making the investment “basically to try to capture some of the business that we could be getting in the extrusion realm,” Wilson said.
Montrose has built a five-decade history in custom injection molding, and Wilson does not see that changing. “In the grand scope of the business, our primary business will continue to be and probably always will be injection molding. This is just a nice complement to that,” he said.
Montrose, which currently has about 220 employees, expects to add five workers as a result of its expansion into extrusion.