Plastics Machinery Group, known for selling used equipment, is beefing up its business in new machinery, using a newly renovated 18,000-square-foot building where the machines can be powered up for prospective buyers.
PMG buys the machines from the original equipment manufacturer, President Don Kruschke said.
"It's really to try to set up a car dealership-type atmosphere, to where people come in and they inspect. They buy. And we ship tomorrow," Kruschke said during an interview at the company's open house in Bedford Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, held a week before K 2019.
So far, PMG has new-machinery relationships with three manufacturers of thermoforming equipment: Maac Machinery Corp., SencorpWhite Inc. and Amut Group. PMG also sells Zerma shredders and grinders, as well as other auxiliary equipment.
Kruschke said PMG hopes to expand the offering of new machinery.
Michael Alongi, Maac's sales director, said PMG has become a customer.
"The concept is there's new equipment available immediately, rather than just made to order," Alongi said at the open house.
PMG plans to have one new machine for display, backed up by several other ones for immediate shipment.
Kruschke said manufacturers of injection molding machines, for example, are able to build up an inventory of machines, but other sectors sell one-off types of equipment that is more customized.
"Sheet lines, they don't have them in stock. Also, thermoformers, whether it be thin gauge or heavy gauge. The cut-sheet machines, they don't have them in stock," he said.
"Every business has ebbs and flows in their business. We're hoping to reduce their ebbs and increase their flows," he said.
Kruschke said PMG hopes to begin doing live demonstrations early next year. Plans call for a three-station Maac rotary thermoformer by the end of March. (The machines currently in stock are shuttles.)
"We will do live demos for actually forming parts, trimming and grinding the edge trim, in the Zerma," he said. "And then we have been asked if people could rent machine time for prototyping. That's a possibility."
PMG continues its original business of selling used machinery, handling a broad range of equipment such as sheet lines, extruders, blow molders, rotational molding machines, thermoformers, and new and used injection molding machines. Used machinery on display at the three-day open house included a Welex sheet line, a Gabler sheet preheater and a Lyle trim press.
But Kruschke said it's not always easy finding good used equipment. "Essentially with the tightening of the used market, we have started working deals with the OEMs, where they typically build on order," he said.
Plastics processors have been busy, and U.S. manufacturers are taking advantage of the 100 percent depreciation write-off in the first year to buy brand new machinery, he said.