Names in the News: Osborne Industries, Engel, Vecoplan, LPKF and Simona

Custom plastics molder Osborne Industries (Osborne, KS) has named George Eakin, a long-time employee, as president and chief operating officer. "George has a very high level of knowledge about our products and processes that will keep us focused on our goal; to provide innovative products and solutions that benefit our employees and customers," said Tom Kober, vice president and chief financial officer of the custom plastic molder. Osborne runs reaction injection molding (RIM) and resin transfer molding (RTM) equipment. 

Eakin joined Osborne Industries as a product engineer in 1987. From 1990-2009, he was chief engineer and in 2009 became vice president of operations. "I am excited to work with the many skilled and capable Osborne employee owners as we grow our company. It will take hard work and dedication from everyone to be successful and I am confident that we will achieve our goals," said Eakin. Osborne Industries is a 100% employee-owned diversified provider of custom molder.

In York, PA, Engel North America, a member of the Engel group, which designs and manufactures injection molding machines and parts-handling automation, has named Friedrich Edlmayr as director of its customer service division for North America. He will manage the technical service, spare parts and training activities for the company's customers throughout North America.

Edlmayr has 21 years experience in various positions with Engel, starting as an apprentice and working his way up through electrical engineering, machine start-up, machine quality inspection and customer support. He is replacing Harald Wegerer, who has accepted a new position in CSD-Business Development with Engel's parent company in Schwertberg, Austria.

Earlier this month the company also celebrated, with an open house, the 25th anniversary of its Automation Technology business unit, which has sold and installed 15,000 automation systems so far. About 2000 visitors, mainly from Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany, joined the company at the recent open house.  Sales manager Johannes Brandstötter says the company will ship 1200 new robots this year. The company claims it supplies nearly one of every two automated production cells sold by European injection molding machine manufacturers, as well as one in every four robots delivered to the injection molding industry.

Size reduction machinery specialist Vecoplan LLC has added Kevin Young to its engineering department. He graduated with honors from North Carolina A&T State University in May 2011 with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering. While at A&T, Kevin was the team captain and project manager of Aggie Racing's Baja SAE entry, finishing 32^nd in this worldwide intercollegiate engineering competition.

After a three-month apprenticeship with Vecoplan he has been appointed to the position of product engineer. The position includes coordinating the design and development of turnkey shredding systems for the recycling sector. He will also oversee the manufacture and implementation of his projects once the engineering phase has been completed. "Kevin's academic credentials combined with his overall attitude showed real promise," states Gary Kolbet, VP of engineering at Vecoplan, LLC. "We're glad to see him fulfilling that potential as a member of our Engineering team!"

Laser joining systems manufacturer LPKF Laser & Electronics AG (Garbsen, Germany) has asked Volker Kühnle to take over the management of the seven LPKF subsidiaries in China. From the Shanghai location he will be coordinating activities in Chengdu, Shenzen, Suzhou, Tianjin, Beijing and Hong Kong. Kühnle has been doing business with China for more than 20 years and has been living in China for more than 10 years. He will be expanding the sales and service network and emphasizing the focus on LaserScribing for solar modules and laser plastic welding.

Simona, a processor of thermoplastic products with production facilities and sales offices around the globe, reports that effective from January 1, 2012, Fredy Hiltmann is to be appointed as a new member of the Executive Board of the company, with oversight of corporate finance. He held senior positions at a number of global corporations, including Siemens AG and Georg Fischer AG. Most recently, Hiltmann was CFO at the Metalor Group.

Simona's product portfolio includes semi-finished products (sheets, profiles, welding rods), pipes and fittings as well as finished parts. It employs more than 1200 worldwide. Annual production exceeds 100,000 tonnes. The company's registered office is in Kirn, Germany.