Plastics Technology - Dedicated to improving Plastics Processing.
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For custom extruder Impact Plastics, the gauge is all the rage. It's been that way since the company was founded in the 1960s. Today, with plants in Putnam, Conn., and Hamlet, N.C., this privately held, family-owned and operated processor specializes in care- fully formulated, thin-gauge sheet made from a range of materials serving markets that include food packaging, foodservice, medical, cosmetics, auto- motive, and custom thermoforming. That might be how a lot of plastics processors describe themselves. But, perhaps because of the materials background of several of its key executives—both David Kingeter, company president, and Bill J. Burke Jr., general manager, spent years working for a major resin producer—Impact Plastics has a rather unique business model for a mid-sized custom extru- sion house. This is not your grandfather's sheet extrusion company, where, at times, product is run, packaged, and shipped without detailed knowledge of the application. Instead, Impact Plastics seeks to establish a collaborative network that allows it to help develop the applica- tion with its customers. Burke, who operates out of the Hamlet facility, puts it this way: "We are a market- driven company. We listen to what our customers want, and work as a team to solve problems and help our customers achieve their goals." As a result, rather than attempt to shoe-horn an applica- tion based primarily on what it can make, Impact Plastics works up and down the supply chain—teaming with material and equipment suppliers and thermoformers to engineer products that solve problems. "This requires us to have direct contact with the market, to deal with brand owners not from the top down, but from the bottom up," states Burke. "Our idea is to create a virtually integrated supply chain that links us in the middle with all of our suppliers upstream and customers downstream. We operate with our customers as though our capabilities are part of their own. "We collaborate through the entire supply chain," Burke continues. "We almost always know the end-use application for our product, and by focusing on the end-use application we are able to better understand how to create value for our customers." The firm (impactplastics-ct.com) is co-owned by well-known industry veterans Steve Ryan and Kingeter, who serves as president. The company is beginning its transition to second-generation owner- ship: Kingeter's daughter Natalie K. MacVarish is the Mid-Atlantic sales representative as well as the company's marketing director. Her brother, Blake Kingeter, is the regional sales representative for the Southeast. Chris Ryan is Steve's son and he handles sales in the Northeast. David Kingeter spends as much time in sales and product development as he does running the operation. Notes Burke, who calls himself a salesman, "Everyone is customer focused, from the president to the sales people, to the operators on the manufacturing floor. Getting to 'yes' and meeting our customers needs is the most important thing." Putnam serves as the company's headquarters, where six sheet lines operate in a 110,000 ft² facility. The plant has a rail siding that accommodates 26 railcars. Coextrusion jobs are run out of Connecticut, where structures of 90/10 to 50/50 in both AB and ABA have satisfied most of the needs of the markets Impact Plastics serves, says MacVarish. That said, the firm is open to new development projects and is positioned to produce either ABC or ABCBA configurations, depending on market demand. The company opened its plant in Hamlet 12 years ago. At 55,000 ft², it houses three extrusion lines and has a rail siding that "We are a market-driven company, not driven by what we can manufacture but what the customer tells us they want." Visit the Sheet Extrusion Zone. Learn more at PTonline.com QUESTIONS ABOUT SHEET EXTRUSION? Operators are a key part of Impact Plastics' customer focus and are incentivized to improve quality. @plastechmag 47 Plastics Technology On-Site Impact Plastics