Kickstart: Building bikes in the US

I grew up in a Schwinn family. We exclusively bought bicycles made by the U.S. manufacturer that had been making bicycles since the 1800s. (No Huffy bikes, please. And definitely not a Roadmaster brand.) We'd go to our local Schwinn dealer to buy Schwinn parts as well as bikes made — at that time — in the U.S.

I still do a lot of bicycling. And have way too many bikes in my possession (they all have a purpose, I swear), but haven't purchased a Schwinn since the mid-1980s. The brand dropped U.S. manufacturing by the 1990s as bicycle manufacturing largely abandoned the U.S.

It's very difficult to buy a U.S.-made bicycle today unless you're seeking a low-volume specialty bike or a custom ride. U.S.-based bike brands may have local R&D, prototyping or assembly, but the bulk of the production is done in Asia. That's one reason why the supply chain for bicycles and bike parts has been so complicated the past few years.

That could change, though. PN's Bridget Janis writes that Time Bicycles has started construction on a 140,000-square-foot factory in Landrum, S.C., that will make carbon-fiber frame bikes. It says it will be the largest U.S. carbon-fiber bike maker when the site opens.

The Time brand launched in Europe in the late 1980s and is now owned by Cardinal Cycling Group of Little Rock, Ark. It currently makes bikes in Slovakia and will bring the same resin transfer molding process to its South Carolina operations.

Does that mean that I'll soon be adding to my stable of bikes? Only time will tell.

In case you missed the news late last week, Procter & Gamble Co. is changing the business plan for its subsidiary Imflux Inc., closing offices and offering a royalty-free license for users of the low-pressure process for injection molding.

Imflux has been a hot topic since Procter & Gamble Co. formed the subsidiary in 2013. As PN's Bill Bregar wrote in 2017, once the company formally introduced it — after securing more than 25 patents — Imflux "stands standard injection molding on its head."

"Traditional injection molding — the way it's been taught for decades — is to ram the melted plastic into the mold at high pressure and high speed, then cross over to the pack-and-hold phase to pack out the part. Imflux is the opposite. It fills slowly, at low pressures," Bill wrote in a blog at that time.

Under the new changes, a team within P&G will continue to support the technology.

Growth must be managed, and managed carefully, says Jim Beadle, chief financial officer of Teel Plastics LLC and the 2022 Plastics News CFO of the Year.

He should know. Teel has grown rapidly — doubling its revenue within two years, Beadle says in a story from Editor Don Loepp.

"A CFO once told me, 'One of the hardest jobs you'll ever have is an expanding organization.' And I think that's true to a certain extent because you want to be able to manage in a way that supports the growth," Beadle said.

You can read the full story here.