Short Shots: From the industry floor 20754

Moldflow sells manufacturing division to Husky, keeps software

Husky Injection Molding Systems (Bolton, ON) announced that it signed an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Moldflow Corp.’s Manufacturing Solutions division for $7 million. With the purchase, Husky will be adding Altanium temperature controls, Celltrack and Shotscope software products, and MPX software (under license from Moldflow) to its hot runner and machine portfolio. Husky says it will continue to offer the current line of LEC and TTC hot runner controls during an as-yet-unspecified transition period.

According to Keith Carlton, Husky’s VP of hot runners and PET molds, Husky will be converting the Moldflow/Shotscope hot runner control/production monitoring operation in Moorpark, CA into a sales/service office, and will move assembly of the systems to its own hot runner plants in Vermont, Luxembourg, and to its facility either in Shanghai or Shenzhen.

Husky will continue to support the Gammaflux hot runner controls for a while, but Carlton says that could change. Meanwhile, Husky will keep the Altanium brand name for the former Moldflow products.

At Moldflow, CEO Roland Thomas told IMM that news of the sale has been “well received everywhere. We’ve been applying tools that allow customers to get the most out of their molding process through the design phase, parts, and mold. With the MMS division, we were trying to reach through to the shop floor. But there is an infrastructure issue. There are few networks on the factory floor, and equipment doesn’t talk to one another. Progress is being made toward a broad-based platform, but we tried to drive this integration. Ultimately, for a company of our size driven by software, it was too large a leap.”

Thomas believes that Husky’s size and quality will be an asset as the two companies maintain a relationship with the licensing of MPX. “Not only is this a better use of resources, but Husky’s developers are already working to the integration end, so there will be no duplication of effort for both companies,” he says.

Moldflow’s focus will once again be software, a change Thomas sees as a “great outcome for the company.” He believes the company can add value, “if we take the amount of energy we were spending on MMS and put it into our core software products.”

There will be no layoffs, according to Thomas. The two companies will be splitting the workforce. Those associated with MMS will become Husky employees. For this reason, customer service handoffs should be seamless, with no glitches in service.—MM/CK

MICRO SHOTS

JS teams with Wes-Tech and Jungwoo
JS Die & Mold Inc. (Byron Center, MI), a member of the Great Lakes Tool & Die Collaborative LLC (www.gltdc.com), recently formed strategic alliances with automation specialists Wes-Tech Automation Solutions (www.wes-tech.com) and offshore mold sourcing specialists Jungwoo USA (www.jungwoousa.com) to further enhance their combined capabilities.—CK

New facility for Mathson
Mathson Industries (Troy, MI), a global minority supplier of design/engineering services and manufacturer of plastics, elastomers, ceramics, and metal injection molded components and systems, has opened a new $5 million, 103,000-ft² manufacturing facility in Hodges, SC, primarily to serve BMW.—CK

Name change for Nucon Wittmann
Canadian auxiliary equipment and controls supplier Nucon Wittmann has changed its name to Wittmann Canada Inc. (Markham, ON). The name change will have no influence on the products and services the company provides, and that includes its recent acquisition of the line of M-Tek blending and material handling systems from Mould-Tek Industries Inc. (Toronto, ON).—CK

Globalized Demag ceases U.S. production

During the month of June 2007 the Chinese subsidiary of Germany-based molding machine maker Demag Plastics Group moved into new facilities in Ningbo. At the end of the month, Demag told employees at its Strongsville, OH facility that it would cease machine production there, and that more than 100 employees would be laid off at the end of either August or September 2007. The Ohio operation will become the North American sales, service, and technical support center for Demag machines that henceforth will be made in Germany, China, and India.

Molding machines have been made at the Strongsville site since 1945 under the Van Dorn banner. Van Dorn was joined with then-Demag Ergotech in the early 1990s to form DPG. Klaus Erkes, CEO of DPG, said that making hydraulic machines in Ohio is no longer necessary, and gave as his reasons the shrinkage of the American IM market from a peak of about 7500 machines per year to an anticipated 3400 units this year, and that half that number will be all-electric IMs.

DPG’s official announcement noted that service and support of the more than 11,000 machines installed in North America will continue as before, and with the same team. It also stated that the U.S. will continue in the future to be one of Demag’s most important markets for all its product lines.—RN

DuPont expands global network,targets automotive

DuPont Engineering Polymers has been busy in the three years since K 2004, and a recent joint pre-K 2007 press conference with Engel Machinery in Prague, Czech Republic proved it. Revenues are up by 22%, topping $6.9 billion last year and comprising almost a quarter of parent company DuPont’s total bottom line. New facilities are up and running in China, Thailand, India, Singapore, and Japan with another $200 million planned for overseas investment over the next three years. Nanocomposites and biomaterials have moved from R&D to commercial availability. While consumer and industrial applications are targeted to a degree, nowhere have these developments had greater impact than the automotive industry.

According to automotive market development manager Klaus Bender, DuPont’s application-oriented products are aimed at reaching both broad and specific industry objectives. “The automotive industry is advancing towards the ideal ‘zero emissions’ car,” he said, “and the rate of progress is determined partly by its own environmental awareness, partly by ever-stricter global mandatory requirements, and partly by customer expectations.”

For example, he explained that the Euro 5 exhaust-gas standards will come into force in 2008 and 2009, with a large reduction in the limits for NOx, particles, CO, and hydrocarbons. “Hybrid drives, the use of biofuels, or the selective post-treatment of exhaust gases are assuming greater importance. There is a trend to substantially smaller-cubic-capacity motors, which have lower fuel consumption but need to be supercharged to achieve the required performance. All these steps mean more severe demands on the plastic materials used.”Bender also told attendees that further weight reduction calls for plastics with improved mechanical properties or for hybrid thermoplastics-metal structural parts. “DuPont’s ‘superstructural’ resins offer a possible way to reduce wall thickness while maintaining load-carrying capacity. The combination of PA and PPA types with good flow characteristics and 40% or 60% long-glass-fiber reinforcement produces both high stiffness and strength, combined with good impact resistance. Where short fibers do not provide sufficient stability—for example, in backrests—carefully placed continuous filaments can provide a solution. In this area, as with thermoplastic-metal hybrids, DuPont is developing new materials and the appropriate technologies.”

Tim McCann, vice president of sales and marketing, believes the company is “uniquely positioned to help our customers ‘Give Shape to Smarter Ideas,’ by delivering high-performance products in a global network and supporting new product developments with an experienced global base of design and processing experts.” Customers can access the global network to meet local needs, a strategy he refers to as “glocal.” According to McCann, DuPont is the only nylon producer with nylon polymer and compounding manufacturing plants in all main regions of the world. “We’re driving a strategy to make all of our products in the regions where they’re sold, because this helps to improve response time, decrease cost, and improve quality.”—MM

A “new” U.S. press manufacturer

It’s hardly a consolation to those of you who remember Van Dorn and are mourning the layoffs and the manufacturing line shutdown of the Strongsville, OH plant, but Engel’s U.S. molding machinery manufacturing facility in York, PA is now its North America HQ. Stephan G. Braig (pictured), the new president and CEO of Engel’s NAFTA operations, is stationed in York, and key sales and technical officials either are already there, or are making the move.

Although the labor force at its former HQ in Guelph, ON will be reduced and its production will be focused mostly on its all-electrics and smaller-tonnage machines, its customer service activities there will be maintained. At its Packaging Days 2007 open house in York (June 13-14), attendees had a chance to tour the plant’s new Technology and Training Centers. The company says it plans to invest $4 million over the next three years to modernize its North American production network.—CK

Lanxess prepares to wean Lustran

Lanxess is saying cheerio to its ABS business unit, Lustran Polymers, which will become part of a joint venture with British chemical group Ineos. The deal is expected to close by the end of September, when Lanxess will receive an initial payment of €35 million ($47.7 million).

“The transfer of this business unit to the joint venture headed by Ineos is a key milestone in Lanxess’s realignment and offers both the ABS business and its employees the best opportunities for further development,” says Axel C. Heitmann, Lanxess’s chairman.“The agreed joint venture provides Ineos with strong market positions in a new portfolio of products that complement our styrenic, polyethylene, polypropylene, and PVC plastics businesses,” says Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of Ineos. “There is also a good fit with a number of our existing businesses and the JV will benefit from upstream integration into key raw materials.”

Ineos will take over Lanxess’s 49% minority interest in the JV two years after the first closing in September, which removes Lanxess from the business. “By creating this joint venture and defining specific exit conditions, we have not only established a solution that ensures the best possible development opportunities for the Lustran Polymers business unit, we have also secured that Lanxess participates in the restructuring efforts that we have initiated in the last two years,” explains Heitmann.Lustran Polymers had 2006 sales of close to €900 million ($1.226 million).—AC

Award-winning MIM parts

At the award competition held during the 2007 International Conference on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials (May 13-16; Denver, CO) cosponsored by the Metal Powder Industries Federation (Princeton, NJ; www.mpif.org), four of the big winners were injection molded parts—MIM parts, to be more precise. The envelope please . . . (pictured right)

Megamet Solid Metals Inc. (Earth City, MO) won a grand prize for a MIM trigger guard it molded for Modern Muzzleloading Inc., Knight Rifles (Decatur, AL). The guard supports the trigger group and hammer in the “quick detachable trigger” mechanism in a 50-caliber muzzle-loading hunting rifle. Made to a density of 7.4 g/cm³, the 3.1-oz MIM steel part has an as-sintered tensile strength of 94,250 psi and 58,000 psi yield strength. Critical dimensions of ±0.005 inch were held.

A grand prizewinner in the Medical/Dental category was Flomet LLC (DeLand, FL) and its customer Ormco Sybron Dental Specialties (Orange, CA) for three parts—a bracket, slide, and removable drop-in hook—used in the Damon 3MX self-ligation orthodontic tooth-positioning system. The very tiny, intricate parts were molded in 17-4 PH stainless steel to a density of 7.5 g/cm³:. Physical properties include a 172,000-psi tensile strength and 158,000-psi yield strength.

An award of distinction for PM and MIM parts used in tactical hinge-style handcuffs made by ASP Inc. (Appleton, WI)—a law enforcement products supplier—went to SSI Technologies Inc. (Janesville, WI). The handcuffs use 14 PM parts, of which five are different designs—a lock pawl, bow, side and center links, and main links. Twelve parts are made from three stainless steel materials and two parts are made from MPIF FD-0405-60 steel. The four main links are MIM parts molded to a 7.5-g/cm³ minimum density and have a tensile strength of 78,000 psi.

Kinetics, a Climax Engineered Materials Co. (Wilsonville, OR), also earned an award of distinction for a 316-L stainless steel MIM pin shroud used in rotator cuff surgical procedures that it made for ArthroCare Corp. (San Juan Capistrano, CA). The MIM pin has a typical density of 7.85 g/cm³, a tensile strength of 78,000 psi, and yield strength of 29,000 psi. And the part reduced ArthroCare’s final assembly from 15 minutes to just 5 minutes per unit.—CK

Investments in Mexico

An Asian trio—China, Japan, and Taiwan—have announced they are investing more than $350 million in Mexico, according to the Mexican Export Mfg. Industry Board, CNIME (Consejo Nacional de la Industria Manufacturera de Exportación). As expected, the heavy hitter is China, whose automotive assembly company ZX plans to install its first Mexican auto assembly plant for SUVs in Tijuana at an initial construction price of $300 million. The remaining investments come from a solar panels company in Tijuana ($30 million) and a firm in aerospace in Mexicali ($25 million). CNIME’s chairman, Jose de Jesus Calleros, estimates manufacturing growth in Mexico to be between 8% and 8.5% this year.—AC

Mistaken identity

Of the three products The Minco Group entered in the SPI Innovative Parts competition (featured in IMM’s June issue, p. 13), one won an appliance category award. Rather than trim rings for a dryer, however, the winning product was a trim ring for a washer door. Check out the pictures and more clarification at immnet.com/articles?article=3248.

Parts printer production partnership

At Plastec East (June 12-14; New York, NY), sources at rapid prototyping systems supplier 3D Systems Corp. (Rock Hill, SC; www.3dsystems.com) formally announced that it is tapping the extensive contract manufacturing services provided by Canon Virginia (Newport News, VA; www.cvi.canon.com), a subsidiary of Canon USA Inc., to produce, distribute, and even recycle components for its new plug-and-play, $9900 desktop 3D model maker trademarked the V-Flash.

Using 3D Systems’ proprietary Film Transfer Imaging technology, the V-Flash is small enough to “print” solid 3D models right beside an engineer’s solid modeling workstation (see www.modelin3d.com for details). It’s just hit the market.

Matthew Slothower, manager of Canon VA’s business development and strategic planning division, says he believes there are three key reasons why 3D Systems came to Canon VA: 1) its short lead times; 2) a similarity of product lines (Canon makes printers, too); and 3) its moldmaking expertise. Canon has built steel family tools for molding the PP cartridges that hold the liquid printing medium used in the V-Flash, for instance (Slothower’s holding one in the photo).

Cary J. Love, VP global 3D printing at 3D Systems, says 60% of the floor space at his company’s relatively new digs in Rock Hill is dedicated to R&D. They had no intentions (or room) to manufacture the V-Flash, so he’s really glad he met Canon VA for the first time early this year at Plastec West. Since then they’ve found they both can practice Canon’s motto—kyosei—working together for a common good. (For more on kyosei, see immnet.com/articles/2007/March/3137).—CK

StackTeck adds capacity

Our business volume has increased by more than 50% over the last five years. We’re very pleased to see that this trend is continuing and, together with our lead time reduction initiatives, we needed some new capital equipment,” says Randy Yakimishyn, president and CEO of StackTeck (Brampton, ON; www.stackteck.com).

The “new capital equipment” he’s referring to includes a high-speed milling machine and a wire EDM that uses Heat software to significantly increase cutting rates. The company also invested in streamlining communications between engineering and manufacturing. A number of stations have been added on the plant floor for the viewing and use of 3D CAD models.

“For key lead time components, we don’t need to wait for drawings any longer,” Yakimishyn says. “Once the component model is approved for manufacture, we can start cutting chips.”

He adds that StackTeck also plans to add new injection molding machine capacity in its Technical Service Center to expand its mold testing and system integration capabilities.—CK

Made-in-China now becoming Made-by-China

This spring, a small Chinese firm called InnoLab teamed up with the Institute for Lean Innovation (Mackinac Island, MI; www.innovationcube.com) to bring an effective process of innovation to Chinese enterprises. The result was business from China’s major R&D operations, including those operated by Dow Chemical, Siemens, and Phillips Electronics.

“We saw the need to enable Chinese product developers to efficiently create innovations here in China,” says Thomas Tang, executive director at InnoLab. “The Institute has a powerful process for innovation in the U.S., and we saw the value in applying their technique here in Shanghai.” “China is the 800-lb gorilla in terms of R&D growth,” says the Institute’s president, Bart Huthwaite. “We had to find a way in to serve the market.”

Realizing the need to shift thinking from “Made in China” to “Made by China,” the organizations invited a select group of R&D directors to a Shanghai innovation workshop featuring Huthwaite and other speakers. The Institute’s associate director, Jeff Schell, has stayed on in the China InnoLab office as the global strategic alliance director and has coordinated innovation training for local R&D departments. Next up: onsite training and Internet-based certification programs for some China operations in English and Chinese.—AC

Jeanette Bradley retires from AMBA

After 30 years as executive director of the American Mold Builders Assn. (Roselle, IL), Jeanette Bradley retired from the position effective June 30. She was recruited by the membership in 1977 to handle the group’s administrative work and was named executive director four years later. Under her direction, the AMBA grew into the largest U.S. trade association for moldmakers, which now serves members in 37 states. Her accomplishments also include the expansion of the organization’s quarterly newsletter to a 48-page color magazine and the development of annual conventions and fall conferences.

“The AMBA has been much more than a job,” Bradley says. “It’s been my passion and my life for 30 years. Both the industry and the people that I’ve met are so valuable to me. Everyone I’ve worked with over the years has been so wonderful and made my work at the ABMA a pleasure . . . This industry has always been a challenge, but a wonderful challenge, and I’ll miss it.”

Bradley will continue to advise the group as the Board searches for a new executive director.—AC