Tec Air Moves Molding From Illinois to Indiana

The approximately 30-mile southeasterly move from Willow Springs, Ill. to Munster, Ind. was prompted by tax incentives from the state of Indiana and the hope that proximity to the previous location will allow the company to keep some existing staff.

 

“Tec Air hopes to retain management staff and many current factory workers,” Tec Air President Bob McMurtry told Plastics Technology. “One of the reasons we selected this location is that we want to keep the key people. A company is more than brick and mortar and machines—it’s the people that do the work and have the collective knowhow.”

 

Tec Air’s Erin Catton noted that construction and renovation are currently underway on its new 130,000-ft² location within the existing 900,000-ft² Lake Business Center of Munster, Indiana. Tec Air is investing $15 million in the injection molding facility that it believes will create more than 250 new jobs by 2016.

 

Catton said the company is currently moving its fleet of 38 hydraulic injection molding machines, which range in clamp force from 66-730 tons, while it adds six new machines to the Indiana site. These additions include four 310-ton Niigata machines, one 385-ton Niigata, and a 410-ton Haitian press. Catton noted that the new Niigata presses are all-electric machines. 

 

Tec Air recently completed the installation of an AEC Pinnacle Series Central Chilling Station for water filtration and chilling. The system can process and cool more than 100 tons of water using scroll compressors, PLC microprocessor, touch-screen control, stainless steel tanks and brazed plate evaporators. Independent refrigerant circuits allow maintenance without downtime, according to Tec Air, and compressor staging provides energy saving capacity control.

 

Tec Air has designed and manufactured injection molded components in Willow Springs since 1972. The company also has manufacturing facilities in Lewisburg, Tenn.