Livonia, Mich. — ActuaPlast North America Inc. has added three new machines to its facility in Livonia.
In May, the French automotive supplier purchased two new Milacron injection machines — one with 55 tons clamping force and the other a 220-ton press. The company also purchased an automatic finishing machine from Italian industrial equipment supplier GS Finishing Machines srl that will be delivered at the end of October. The company declined to comment on how much it had invested in these new machines.
ActuaPlast has three blow molding machines with high-temperature capacity for engineering materials at its Livonia facility.
"Before, we had to subcontract the injected parts to the supplier, and now we'll be able to do everything in-house," said Virginie Perennou Tymen, administrative manager at ActuaPlast, in a Sept. 15 interview at the Michigan facility, which opened in 2014.
The company has three Ritmo manual welding machines for producing prototype parts, but Tymen said the addition of the automatic finishing machine will enable ActuaPlast to offer customers a finished blow molded part for mass production.
"With these new machines, we plan to double our sales revenue," she added.
ActuaPlast's sales objective is to reach $2.5 million in 2017 and $5 million in 2018 at the Livonia facility.
To run the new injection presses, the company has hired a plastics injection molding processor and plans to hire a plastics machinist/welder by the end of the year. In addition, Perennou Tymen said ActuaPlast will hire seven other employees over the next year to cover sales, quality, project management, technician and operator roles.
Perennou Tymen said the company is also looking to invest in rapid prototyping with additive technologies, such as stereolithography, selective laser sintering and direct metal laser sintering. Parent company ActuaPlast Group is also considering an expansion in Mexico.
ActuaPlast manufactures various under-the-hood technical parts, such as air intake manifolds and air filters manufactured with injection molding and 2D or 3D blow molded ducts for Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers. The company has headquarters in La Forêt Fouesnant, France, with an additional location in China. ActuaPlast Group has a total of 170 employees and plans to reach sales of 17.3 million euros ($20.7 million) in 2017.