South Korea’s LS Mtron Injection Molding Machines has recently expanded its US operations with the opening of two new facilities — a large-tonnage mold testing and tech center in Brownsville, TX, and a parts and service center in San Diego, CA. The company also announced its move to a new headquarters in Duluth, GA.

LS Mtron also operates a Midwest Tech Center in Wood Dale, IL, and a sales and service center in Queretaro, Mexico, to serve its North American customer base.

“We are growing rapidly in North America and LS Mtron is investing heavily to support that growth,” said Peter Gardner, Business Director at LS Mtron Injection Molding Machines USA.

Gardner said that LS Mtron shipped 284 molding machines to North America in 2021, and is seeing increased demand for its machines, especially large-tonnage models. “These expansions will help us stock more parts and we are increasing our molding machine inventory,” he said. “We have over 40 machines in stock now in the USA, including models up to 1400 US tons.”

The new LS Mtron Large Tonnage Tech Center in Brownsville is co-located with LS Mtron customer MVP Plastics. Darrell McNair, President of MVP Plastics, was instrumental in partnering with LS Mtron on this project. “We use numerous LS Mtron presses,” said McNair, “and we do a lot of large-part molding for the automotive market in Texas. We were happy to partner with LS Mtron to outfit our plant with additional machines that they can use to run trials and production for our customers.”

MVP has facilities in Brownsville and Middlefield, OH. "We've been a longtime user of LS Mtron machines," McNair said. "Of our 34 machines, we have 10 of theirs in Brownsville and another five in our Ohio facility." Seven of the Brownsville LS Mtron presses are new, and include LS Mtron premium two-platen machines and LS Mtron all-electric machines.

“Having the ability to run trials for customers on large automotive molds on our LS machines is a big plus for us,” said Gardner. “We are pleased to be working together with MVP Plastics in this new venture.”

The new LS Mtron San Diego parts and service center supports the molding operations of many of LS Mtron’s nearby customers along the US-Mexico border. These include Samsung Electronics, which is molding large-panel television components. It has also added two more service engineers at the San Diego location.

LS Mtron moved its headquarters to Duluth, GA, from its previous location in Peachtree Corners, GA. The new 16,000-square-foot facility includes more office space, increased warehouse space for spare parts inventory, and a larger demonstration area for the injection molding machines. DS Jo, Director of LS Mtron’s North American operations, said, “The key factor of the injection molding machine business is service response time, including parts availability. We have doubled the number of direct service technicians and the size of our spare parts stock inventory in the US in just the past two years. LS is making this proactive investment to support revitalized American manufacturing.”