Mexico City — New Jersey custom insert molder and injection molder Weiss-Aug Co. Inc. has installed two 22-ton Bruderer stamping presses at its first manufacturing facility outside the United States as it moves gradually towards full production capacity at its plant in Mexico.
Three injection molding presses from Arburg GmbH & Co KG, each with a clamping force of 22 metric tons, will be installed by the end of the year, Plant General Manager Jorge Zamora Duque said April 10.
Jessica Velasco, a Weiss-Aug marketing coordinator, told Plastics News separately that the company expects insert injection molding operations to be up and running in Apodaca, close to Monterrey, by the end of 2018.
"They [the Weiss-Aug team in Mexico] are in the process of installing a [quality] lab and a tool room," she said. Weiss-Aug opened the plant in June 2017.
According to Zamora, Weiss-Aug is investing $15 million in the Mexican company, Weiss-Aug México S de RL de CV, over three years.
According to the Weiss-Aug website, the Apodaca facility is producing electrosurgical device components for the medical industry and terminal sub assemblies for automotive industry clients.
It also offers manual assembly services on a clean, environmentally controlled production floor.
Last year, up to 80 percent of the facility's output was for the medical and automotive industries, Zamora said.
"Our current production is 100 percent for the United States," he said at the time.
Asked in April whether most of the Apodaca plant's output is still for the medical and automotive industries, he replied: "Yes."
Had the company taken on more work from industries beyond medical and automotive? "Not yet," was his reply.
Weiss-Aug México employs 45 and plans to employ up to 120 over the next two years or so.
Founded in 1972, Weiss-Aug's headquarters are in East Hanover, N.J. It has another manufacturing plant in Fairfield, N.J. Among its other services are r&d, prototyping, progressive die tooling, precision metal stamping, reel-to-reel molding and laser welding.