PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2015

MOULD MAKING 20 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 10/15 www.petpla.net Preform moulds only by Waldemar Schmitke Today we are visiting a subsidiary of the Wentworth Group in Vandalia Ohio - Electra Form Industries (EFI). We meet Brian Karns, Vice-President & General Manager, Rich Ryan, Sales Manager, and Max Buchanan, Sales Manager. EFI is a manufacturer of preform moulds for injection moulding applications and has considerable experience in this sector going back more than 35 years. EFI was acquired by the Wentworth Group in 2002. March 2, 2015 We met: Brian Karns, Vice-Pres- ident & General Manager, Rich Ryan, Sales Manager, and Max Buchanan, Sales Manager At E.F.I ‘s site in Vandalia , Ohio, teher are 30 peole working in an erea extending 65, sq.ft . Along with Went- worth Mold (Stoney Creek, Canada), EFI shares a sister company with 3 locations in Poland that provides additional manufacturing capabilities for preform moulds and blow moulds. The combined capacity of North America and Poland is 300 cavities per month. The location in Poland is somewhat larger and handles the overwhelming proportion of mould inserts and all the base plates. The hot runner is an EFI design and is built at both sites. In Vandalia is the assembly and testing of the PET tools takes place. According to Brian Karns, coop- eration with Poland is excellent: “We have transferred the full range of our experience and processes from here to our Polish facilities and this enables us to work to identical standards in both locations. This means that we are able to utilise capacity precisely where it is needed”. Premium Sponsor Sponsors F.l.t.r.: Brian M. Karns, Vice President & General Manager, and Waldemar Schmitke, PETplanet, in front of the newly installed Netstal PETline 2400 with a 24-cavity EFI preform mould in the showroom at Vandalia Ohio. “The range of moulds here extends to 96-cavity with a neck finish diameter of 26mm to 110mm. EFI has a staple of existing designs, and other cavity pitches are also possible. However, lately, the focus of our activities is lower cavitation moulds (16-24 cavity with quick change capabilities). This also acts as a trigger for investments here at this location,” says Brian Karns and continues, “as there is evidence of encouraging growth within this sector in North America. Oth- erwise 75% of the focus here is on con- versions and refurbishments for existing tooling in the market.” On the development side, the loca- tion also features a laboratory and a 2-cavity machine for prototyping. A total of three preform machines are available for tests and demonstrations, two Huskys and one Netstal that were installed within the last year. The Net- stal preform machine, PETline 2400, is the product of a new partnership with Netstal AG Switzerland for the North and South American markets. The parties have been working together for eighteen months to intro- duce Netstal preform systems with EFI tooling. As Brian Karns points out to us, the installation of the preform machine at EFI completes the crea- tion of a showcase and training centre for North America. We thank our hosts for our discus- sions and continue on our journey. www.wtbvc.com