Bedford Heights, Ohio — Plastics Machinery Group has signed agreements to stock new blow molding presses and thermoforming machines. Both are from Italian manufacturers, and both sport all-electric technology.
PMG will be the stocking distributor for Meccanoplastica srl, handling sales, parts and service at the company's 18,000-square-foot showroom in Bedford Heights, near Cleveland.
"We're going to be having machines running and demonstrating on the floor and having them in inventory for immediate shipment," PMG President Don Kruschke said an interview at the company headquarters.
PMG, which was known for selling used equipment, continues to build its new-machinery business. The company renovated the headquarters building last year, and all machines housed there — new and used — can be powered up and operated.
Meccanoplastica marks the first time PMG has sold new blow molding machines, Kruschke said. The company has sold used blow molders for about 10 years, he said.
The Meccanoplastica business is being run by Dan Patek, who heads PMG's blow molding business. Patek serves on the board of the Society of Plastics Engineers' blow molding division.
He said the Italian blow molding press manufacturer's strength is expertise in all-electric technology. "We'll have brand-new, all-electric blow molders up and running and in inventory in the showroom," Patek said.
Meccanoplastica makes a full range of machinery: injection blow, extrusion blow and stretch blow. "The game-changer there is having an all-electric injection blow machine for any clean room application," Patek said. The injection blow machine is the JET series, aimed at the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.
Ambrogio Invernizzi, U.S. sales manager for all Meccanoplastica product lines, said his company has sold fewer than 20 machines in the United States and Canada. The manufacturer has about 900 machines running in the field, most of them in Europe and North Africa, he said in an email.
Invernizzi is also the global product manager for injection blow molding technology. He said that Meccanoplastica had an agreement with Kautex Machines Inc. to sell injection blow presses in the United States, but that ended in September.
The Italian company has not had a U.S.-based spare parts and service operation in the United States before the PMG deal, he said.
Plastics Machinery Group also has moved to sell new thermoforming machines, from Amut Group. PMG already stocks new equipment from Maac Machinery Corp. and SencorpWhite Inc.
"We are going to bring in all-electric Amut high-speed thermoformers," Kruschke said. "We're their exclusive stocking distributor in the U.S."
Kruschke said both the new Meccanoplastica and Amut equipment should arrive at PMG in May. PMG plans to hold an open house once the machines are set up.