Eck Plastic Arts expands capability with new molding machine

BINGHAMTON — Eck Plastic Arts, of Binghamton, announced it has purchased a new machine to enhance its capacity for injection molding, the firm’s fastest-growing market segment.

Eck Plastic Arts acquired a 1,012-ton Mars II S injection-molding machine from Absolute Haitian in June, according to a company news release. It didn’t say how much the machine cost.

Absolute Haitian is the Worcester, Massachusetts–based sales and service partner in the U.S. and Canada for Haitian International based in Ningbo, China. Ningbo Haitian Machinery Co., Ltd. is the world’s largest supplier of plastics injection-molding machinery, shipping more than 32,000 machines in 2019.

Eck Plastic Arts, located at 87 Prospect Ave. in Binghamton, produces plastic parts for original-equipment manufacturers, including vacuum forming, injection molding, and fabrication of sheet plastic. The company says it caters to industrial-equipment manufacturers for markets including medical and defense-equipment suppliers.

The new MA 9000 II S machine is four times larger than Eck Plastic Arts’ next- largest press. 

“When looking to grow our business, we realized it is not hard to find work for a molding machine this size,” Brett Pennefeather, president of Eck Plastic Arts, said in the release. “At the time the machine was ordered, we had one project lined up for the 1,012-ton Mars. Now, we have five other projects lined up right behind that.”

This is the first Haitian press that Eck Plastic Arts has purchased. Asked why the firm selected the MA II S, Pennefeather noted the machine’s easy-to-use tie-bar puller. “Our ceilings top out at 11 feet and machines this size are about 9 feet high. The only way to install or change out a mold is to load the mold from the side,” he noted. “We ordered the MA II S with an automatic tie bar puller that was on the preferred side of the machine and operated with a push of a button.”

The coronavirus pandemic added another challenge for Eck Plastic Arts as it prepared for delivery of the machine. A new concrete floor had to be poured and new electrical and plumbing services had to be installed while keeping employees and contractors safe. Delivery of the large-tonnage machine was equally challenging as the riggers, Rogers Service Group, had to navigate several tight intersections and a narrow delivery dock. “The clamp alone weighed some 50,000 pounds and was assembled outside and then rolled into the building,” said Pennefeather.

The first product Eck Plastic Arts is manufacturing on the MA II S is a souvenir drinking cup shaped as a baseball bat and sold at major-league and minor-league baseball stadiums. “The delay in opening professional baseball ended up working in our favor as it took the fire drill out of starting up the machine,” Pennefeather conceded. “It gave us more time to make sure everything was assembled properly, and auxiliaries were hooked up correctly as we familiarize our team with this new machine make.”

During the COVID-19 outbreak, Eck Plastic Arts has partnered with a local nonprofit, the Association for Vision Rehabilitation and Employment (AVRE) to manufacture thousands of face shields. AVRE has contracts with federal agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assemble the face shields from components produced by Eck Plastic Arts. “AVRE has been able to distribute the shields not only to federal agencies but also to several local hospitals,” explained Pennefeather. “We provide the parts at cost, keeping our shop active, enabling AVRE to provide contract work for its visually impaired clients and lower the price of the face shields for entities that badly need them.”