C&J spending $6M for molding, assembly, tooling to meet demand

Anaheim, Calif. — Meadville, Pa.-based C&J Industries Inc. plans to invest in more automation as it expands its molding, assembly and tooling capacity for new business from existing customers, John Carpenter, director of sales and estimating, told Plastics News at MD&M West in Anaheim.

The company is investing $6 million to expand its facility with a 25,000-square-foot addition, including a 12,000-square-foot clean room and space for 24 new presses. It's also building a closed walkway to an additional warehouse building nearby, making even more room for manufacturing inside its main facility, Carpenter said.

The main facility will eventually expand into its parking lot, and staff parking will relocate next to the warehouse, he added.

C&J now expects the expanded space and new clean room to be operational by the second quarter of 2024, a setback from an original opening date target of February 2024.

"The … new clean room is being built to handle some incoming jobs from existing customers, as well as to help provide molded components for a new job that we're getting in assembly," assembly supervisor John Beers said in a news release.

Its new business from existing customers in the health care and telecom industries includes production and assembly of a contact lens container, Carpenter said.

C&J is also experiencing higher demand for tooling, Carpenter said. After supply chain holdups in the pandemic, "customers rarely push for offshore tooling."

Reshored tooling is more expensive than shipping tools from Asia, he said, and can be a sticker shock for some customers.

"You don't get the same price when you come back [to the U.S.]," Carpenter said. "But slowly they're realizing [overseas tooling is] not working."

Some customers with products or tooling shipping from Asia and Europe are starting new projects in the U.S. to avoid "issues with deliveries and communication," he added. "Even though things are lightening up and it's not as much of a risk … now. I think they learned a lesson that we don't know what's going to happen down the road."

The company offers a 10-year mold warranty to compete with offshore manufacturers, he said: "Capital is getting tighter, and people are more conscious, and they're really starting to see the benefit of it."

C&J supplies injection molded components, assemblies and complete devices for the medical device, pharmaceutical, industrial, consumer products and telecommunications markets.