Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Plastics News Europe
  • Plastics & Rubber World
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • NPE 2018
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • Who doesn't like football? And pets?
      Donnelly adds press for complex parts
      'A constant champion for our industry'
      Carteaux's legacy: Saving and transforming the Plastics Industry Association
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Plastics News Now
    • Processor of the Year
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Bumper to Bumper
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
  • Multimedia
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
  • Opinion
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • 2019: The year the business cycle caught up to plastics machinery
      Turning a recycling nightmare into a success story
      Unlikely story of how a plastic survey marker brought people together
      Auto industry changes look like bad news for toolmakers
    • What makes a company attractive for acquisition?
      How plastics manufacturers are maximizing existing machinery
      Trademarks of the successful packaging supplier
      Molding innovations come from partnerships
    • A workable solution?
      Slower growth won't mean less M&A activity
      Skibbereen correct to stop RTP compounding plant
      Container fee a 'public relations gimmick'
    • Hubertz focused on finding new business for Wisconsin's Vision Plastics
      Photos by Don Loepp
      Busy times for Mike Walter at Met2Plastic
      Plastic Parts Inc. photos by Don Loepp. Jill has the dark sweater
      ‘Scientific mindset' works for Wisconsin's Plastic Parts
      Partnerships help i2tech keep growing
  • Blogs
    • In Motion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Pop Goes Plastics
    • Behind the lens
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • NO. 7
    • From Pillar to Post
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • A 30-year-old plastics millennial
      Need skilled workers? Maybe you're looking in the wrong places
      Pondering the potential of exposure to the skilled trades
      Generations change with time, but we all share one thing in common
    • Plastics News journalists honored for outstanding work
      Forget about the mousetrap. Who can build better sustainability?
      'They didn't mean to be discriminatory'
      Plastics News welcomes reader opinions
    • Kickstart: The Sustainability Bowl
      Kickstart: Picture women in charge
      Kickstart: Living in a material world
      Kickstart: The Island of Misfit Toys
    • I’ve seen our strawless future. And it’s just fine
      South Africa takes on straws, plastics waste
      California's straw law gains interest
      DC straw ban enforcement and January usage totals
    • A 30-year plastics veteran
      An expert on workplace shootings warns: 'Lightning can strike anywhere'
      Public companies see opportunity in plastics machinery
      Celebrating National Adirondack chair day? Why not? It's all American!
    • PolyOne's Patterson recognized by University of Michigan
      Lubrizol, Maroon Group show support for science education
      MAPP awards top firms for innovation and education
      Polymers of a feather stick together at University of Akron
    • A sustainable lid for your lid (read the footnotes if you're confused)
      Berry, Sabic join forces in chemical recycling
      Recycling? For Gerber, it's child's play
      Canada and the work toward a greener legal marijuana industry
    • Raise the roof: Housing starts hit a 12-year high
      Finding a place for polymer siding in New Urbanism
      Uponor's new manufacturing plant honored again
    • Kickstart: Holy LCA Batman!
      Plastics industry's top issues on display at Chinaplas
      Basel talks consider changes to plastic scrap trade
    • The state with the most compounders? Here's a hint
      A peek behind the data in our 2019 ranking of North American blow molders
      Turning anecdotes on women-owned companies into data
      Signs of fall: Pumpkin spice, falling leaves, mold making report
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars/Live Streams
    • Plastics News Live
    • Become a Speaker
    • Women Breaking The Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive 2020
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
  • Resin Resources
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Datasheets
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • K Show
  • More+
    • Data Store
    • Classifieds
    • Newsletters
    • Directory
    • Digital Edition
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
May 08, 2017 02:00 AM

Entek highlights expertise in screws and barrels

Roger Renstrom
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Roger Renstrom
    President Kirk Hanawalt and Director of Sales Linda Campbell show equipment in the pilot plant of Entek Manufacturing LLC in Lebanon, Ore.

    Lebanon, Ore. — Entek Manufacturing LLC is gaining visibility and sales growth beyond its historic focus on production of twin-screw co-rotating extruders.

    "The industry is learning more about our ability to supply barrels and screws under wear-parts contracts," Linda Campbell, Entek director of sales since April 2016, said in an interview in Lebanon.

    Entek Manufacturing operates as Entek Extruders. While the business does not disclose sales figures, Campbell projects a 40 percent increase during 2017 vs. last year, principally from higher volumes of parts and components, along with more demand for turnkey production services.

    "Some key customers wanted to collaborate with us on metallurgy" and production projects, Campbell reported.

    A customer visiting for a pilot-plant trial toured the Lebanon facility and, "after seeing our machine shop and understanding our capabilities, invited us to meet with them at one of their production facilities to learn about a need they had been struggling with," Campbell said.

    "They had been working for two years on an R&D project on how to reduce landfill waste from used very-large elements as well as decrease the cost of new replacement screws," she said. "We collaborated with them, and Entek developed a new process that we ultimately patented."

    Because the customer understood Entek's capabilities, "they engaged us to help with the metallurgy needs," Campbell noted.

    Another customer wants to work with Entek on extending screw/barrel wear life to reduce downtime. "In this case, they are open to thinking outside the box and using their highly abrasive facility as a testbed," she said.

    Since 2009, Entek has produced barrels and screws with some surprisingly large diameters up to 250 millimeters. Primary end markets involve building material, automotive and appliance applications.

    In January, Entek introduced its QC3-brand 33 mm twin-screw co-rotating extruder for compounding small lots.

    The addition fills a gap between other QC3 models at 27 mm, 43 mm and 53 mm. QC3 stands for quick change, quick clean and quality control.

    QC3 demonstrates a "quick screw set change, something that takes five minutes or less on Entek machinery compared to an hour typically on other machines," said Kirk Hanawalt, Entek Manufacturing president and a co-owner of the parent company.

    Larger Entek extruder models have diameters of 73 mm, 103 mm and 133 mm.

    Since 1997, Entek has built more than 225 extruders of which 187 operate in North America, Hanawalt said. Entek can connect with each machine via a secure virtual private network.

    Entek Extruders' in-house pilot plant continues to evolve and now utilizes a QC3 43 mm extruder along with other Entek technology and supplier-consigned equipment with a total value of about $1.5 million. The setup allows customers to experience benefits of the systems firsthand.

    The capabilities include liquid feeders, a strand cutter, a hot-face cutter, profile dies and cooling tanks.

    "We run trials, and we can target pounds-per-hour consumption capacities," Hanawalt said.

    Entek dedicates the services of a manager and two technicians to pilot-plant functions.

    Entek opened a sales and engineering office in Wake Forest, N.C., in 2014. Two people are employed there, and "we are adding a third person now," Hanawalt said.

    Entek Extruders occupies a total of 65,200 square feet including 46,000 for manufacturing, 15,700 for offices and 3,500 for the pilot plant.

    Hanawalt said the operation employs 135 and aims to end 2017 at 150. Currently, the business is recruiting additional machinists, welders, assemblers and control and mechanical engineers.

    Entek Extruders looks forward to May 7-11, 2018, at the triennial NPE trade show of the Plastics Industry Association in Orlando, Fla.

    "Our goal is to exhibit two extruders, a QC3 33 mm and a 103 mm," Campbell said.

    Four owners

    An ownership transition occurred in November 2011 with the formation of a new umbrella entity Entek Holdings LLC.

    In addition to Hanawalt, owners of the holding company are CEO Larry Keith, his brother Rob Keith and technology guru Richard Pekala.

    Rob Keith is president of Entek International LLC, a Lebanon-based business that continuously extrudes and extracts microporous silica-filled polymer films based upon ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene for separators for flooded lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries.

    Pekala, a biochemical engineer and silica gels expert, is chief technology officer for Entek International.

    Jim Young, who founded the business in 1979, sold the separator business to his management team in November 2007. At that time, Young and Larry Keith retained ownership of Entek Manufacturing LLC.

    By 2011, most of the members of the management group that owned and operated the separator business were ready to retire. Larry Keith put together a deal to buy the separator business and Young's interest in Entek Extruders and reunited the two operations. Rob Keith and Pekala retained ownership interest, and Hanawalt was brought into the new ownership group.

    Battery operations

    Entek International and Separindo Industri PT formed a joint venture in January to extend Entek advanced manufacturing technologies to Separindo's plant in Jakarta, Indonesia.

    Entek aims to shorten the supply line of its RhinoHide-brand battery separators to reach the Asian market.

    Entek International plans to utilize its engineering, design and production capabilities to take Separindo in Jakarta to a new level and address battery-separator demands from customers of other firms in China, India, Thailand and the region.

    Separindo entered the battery-separator market in the late 1990s, currently employs about 150 and operates non-Entek twin-screw extruders along with melt pumps, screen changers and sheet dies.

    Entek, which made its first material for battery separators in 1987, employs 205 in Lebanon and 135 at a subsidiary in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    TPG investing $14.3M in Kentucky blow molding operations
    As toolmakers press to bring back tariffs, other manufacturers push back
    Ineos Styrolution, Agilyx to build PS recycling plant in Illinois
    Industry groups welcome agreement on USMCA
    New to the U.S. landscape, a Mazda supplier commits large
    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Plastics News Europe
    • PRW
    • LSR World
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    Copyright © 1996-2019. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Plastics News Now
        • Processor of the Year
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Bumper to Bumper
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • NPE 2018
    • Multimedia
      • Videos
      • Galleries
      • Podcasts
    • Opinion
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Blogs
      • In Motion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Pop Goes Plastics
      • Behind the lens
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • NO. 7
      • From Pillar to Post
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Women Breaking The Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive 2020
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
      • Industry Events
      • Webinars/Live Streams
      • Plastics News Live
      • Become a Speaker
    • Resin Resources
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
      • Datasheets
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • K Show
    • More+
      • Data Store
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Newsletters
      • Directory
      • Digital Edition