Hot runner capacity doubles

GME Inc., a Texas moldmaker, received a two-drop, valve-gate Husky hot runner system back in August. What's the big deal about that? Well, the system GME bought was the first ever built at Husky's new $90 million, 230,000-sq-ft, U.S. hot runner manufacturing facility in Milton, VT. In production since July and officially opened in September, Husky's plant will double its North American capacity for manifolds, plates, and components; add more service and training; and reduce lead times from the current average of 10 weeks for complete systems, 7 to 8 weeks for manifolds, and 5 to 6 weeks for pre-engineered systems.

"They've been promising us they would get their delivery times down for some time now," explains GME's Ben Hamilton. He says the two-drop system was for a mold going to a medical customer, Allegiance Health Care. "They needed a valve gate. The component could not have any gate vestige. It goes right into the operating room, so it has to be perfect."

At the opening ceremonies, Vermont's governor, Howard Dean, called Husky Milton the most remarkable manufacturing plant in Vermont and cited Husky as a corporate example of how to do business both in his state and elsewhere. Husky's president, Robert Schad, intends to make Husky the leading hot runner manufacturer in the world. An identical hot runner plant in Europe is expected to be completed next year. The Milton plant will employ 240 by year's end.

The building uses the best technologies available for energy and waste minimization efficiencies. It is entirely CFC-free. All cooling fluids from the machining centers are filtered and recycled on site, the natural landscaping outside requires neither pesticides nor chemical fertilizers. Inside, advanced machining centers can mill and jigbore plates up to 80 by 51 inches with tolerances to within ±.0002 inch. Husky can make systems for single-face and stack molds with up to 128 drops.