CH3 Solutions shrinks machinery footprint for bigger growth

As CH3 Solutions LLC brings in bigger equipment and bigger business, the open space on its manufacturing floor is shrinking. This has led the company to swap out some of its smaller-tonnage injection molding machines as it makes room for the big ones.

For a time, CH3 Solutions had up to nine injection molding machines at its 90,000-square-foot facility in Dalton, Ga., but it sold most of the small machines and is now outsourcing some of those molding jobs, according to Vice President Rodney Davenport.

It's all part of the "big" strategy. The company has invested "close to a million dollars" in plant infrastructure upgrades, injection molding machinery and auxiliary equipment in recent months.

"It's almost like every year we're doubling," he said in a phone interview with Plastics News.

The company is still relatively young — it was established in 2015 — but Davenport expects the molding business to reach at least 20 percent growth year over year.

Additionally, CH3 Solutions has expanded its capacity with a new customer thanks to the acquisition activity of its parent company, the Recreational Group.

The parent organization, based out of the same building as CH3 Solutions in Dalton, owns several companies that specialize in the design, manufacturing and installation of recreational surfaces for residential and commercial applications.

In December 2019, the Recreational Group bought Swisstrax Corp., which sells plastic modular tiles used as floor covering in garages, hangars and event spaces. Swisstrax previously outsourced the tooling and molding operations. Now, CH3 Solutions handles that work in-house.

Davenport said the extra business from Swisstrax could bring in an estimated $1 million in sales for the year. It was also a catalyst for more investments at CH3 Solutions.

"With the acquisitions that … Recreational Group has been making, it's growing our molding larger, which in turn is bringing in bigger equipment, bigger molds, more material usage," he said.

At the Dalton facility, the company is installing a brand-new 15-ton crane system and looking into adding a new bulk materials handling system. It's also beefing up its machinery lineup with larger-tonnage injection molding machines.

Two of those machines — servo-hydraulic two-platen presses, both with a clamping force of 1,050 tons — are from Austrian machinery maker Engel's Chinese subsidiary Wintec, which specializes in single-shot injection molding machines designed for standard applications.

Engel introduced the Wintec brand to the United States during NPE2018, expanding sales of the standard grade injection molding machines to North America and Brazil.

CH3 Solutions was the first customer who bought a Wintec machine once sales opened up for the region, said Hannes Frauenschuh, vice president of Wintec North America.

"Our machine builds upon Engel's experience, and it offers the highest reliability, energy efficiency and repeatability," he said in a phone interview. "We focus on standardization, not only in the product but also in production, which keeps lead times extremely, extremely short."

Wintec machines are designed and engineered in Europe and produced in China. The company also has stock machines in both China and York, Pa., where Engel's North American subsidiary is also headquartered.

Since Wintec machines are manufactured in China, the company's machinery imports into the U.S. are slapped with a 25 percent tariff. Despite the Trump administration's partial truce with China in mid-January, 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports remain.

"The tariffs do impact us," Frauenschuh said. "But we are still very competitive in our offering."

For CH3 Solutions, Davenport said the tariff hit the company at about 12 percent, but there wasn't any sticker shock.

"I'm not seeing the full 25 percent in there," he said, explaining that Wintec will work with the customer on a tariff and pricing strategy.

CH3 Solutions' two T-Win series machines are scheduled to be delivered in February. They'll join two other Wintec presses from the hydraulic series — a 730-ton and a 950-ton.

"We're starting to move our entire production floor around to move all the machines to get in line with the crane and then make room for the two machines and … shrink our footprint to give us more real estate in the building," Davenport said.

He said the small footprint of the Wintec presses was huge selling point.

Once the two Wintec presses are delivered, CH3 Solutions will have six injection molding machines in total, with clamping forces ranging from 730-1,050 tons. The company is keeping one small press, however: a 110-ton that runs about 50 tools for two customers.

"At CH3, we're not a huge company," he said. "But we try to really help our partners in the industry. … There's always going to be competition, right? But if we can help each other, I think it's going to make our industry better and make it easier in the future."