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May 08, 2017 02:00 AM

Entek highlights expertise in screws and barrels

Roger Renstrom
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    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.

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