Begun as a job shop in 1936, West Nyack, NY-based Plastic-Craft Products Corp. has found success by expanding its operations to include not only fabrication services, but also full service distribution. Its customers include manufacturers in the electronics, communications, point-of-purchase, medical, aerospace, computer and pharmaceutical industries.

Within the 35,000-square-foot facility, Plastic-Craft's secondary operations include a long list of machines to handle sawing, drilling, milling, turning, forming, cementing, engraving, grinding, shearing, slitting, hot stamping and silk screening.

"Although all our machines aren't used all of the time, all of them are used some of the time," says Mark Brecher, president of Plastic-Craft. "Having a wide range of abilities has allowed us to cater to many of our customers' needs."

The second generation president of Plastic-Craft has found that being versatile and keeping the customer happy is job one.

"We went through a couple of transitions where at one time we did 100 percent job shop related business. Then we went to mostly distribution," said Brecher. "Now Plastic-Craft has gone back to being 70-30, 70 percent fabricating and 30 percent distribution. (Of the 70 percent) 50 percent of the fabricating is job shop while the other 20 percent is manufacturing proprietary products.

"When I started at Plastic-Craft in 1973, I started at a time when we were doing only about $75,000 a year in business," adds Brecher. "Now, not even 30 years later, we are at $5 million. The main reason for that difference over the years has been our adjustment to the customers needs -- in product application and product development."

"We do so many more things now," explains Brecher. "We fabricate large polypropylene tanks that are used in car washes. We make tanks for water purification companies. We utilize our milling machines and other types of machines to fabricate small components."

For example, Plastic-Craft fabricates replacement parts for tableting and capsulation equipment for the pharmaceutical industry. These parts, made out of acetals and UHMW, require machining and turning. Plastic-Craft also uses Teflon to make gaskets as well as magnetic clamps for use in the semi-conductor industry .

To accommodate its fabricating needs, Plastic-Craft uses a wide variety of machines. All of its CNC machining is performed on five machines including a new CMS CNC router with 10-position tool change and dual heads.

"Most of the equipment we utilize any more is CNC, says Brecher. "We do have some old standbys here that we use for prototyping where it doesn't pay to take the time to set up a CNC machine to get the job done. For production capacity, if you don't have computerized equipment, you won't be able to make it in this business anymore."

The CNC machines require a constant and high velocity dust exhaust system for proper operation. After taking advice from a neighboring woodworking shop, Plastic-Craft decided to invest in a new dust collection system which would work not only on the new router, but also tie all of its equipment together.

One of the most critical factors in selecting and designing a dust collection system depends on the air volume and velocity needed to capture and convey the dust from each machine, the dust concentration and properties of the dust, such as particle size and flowability, Brecher explains. Traditional systems, however, posed a problem due to the fact that plastic is light and doesn't flow like metal or wood chips.

The company decided on a Sternvent Model CY3630 cyclone dust collector with a collection hopper to remove the plastic particles from the shop. After the dust collector removes the plastic chips, shavings and coarse dust, the return air is brought back into the building through a 612-square-foot afterfilter which removes the fine dust particles.

The Sternvent collector also helps remove dust and particles generated by the other machines in the shop. This has the dual benefit of making for a cleaner work environment, as well as improving the quality of the products produced.

Some of the other machines incorporated in Plastic-Craft's daily machining include eight Bridgeport J1 milling machines, nine turning machines, nine saws, nine grinders/sanders and five drill presses. Plastic-Craft also utilizes Wegener extrusion and hand-held welders and a Seelye Ultra hand-held welder.

"We mostly fabricate with acrylic, polycarbonate, nylon, acetals and Teflon," says Brecher. "Those five make up the majority in volume of the materials that we fabricate. We also work with and distribute 100 or so other plastics."

As a distributor of plastic sheet, rod, tube and film, Plastic-Craft sells its inventory of all plastic materials available for immediate delivery or fabrication. Among its suppliers are: DSM, Westlake Plastics, Cyro Industries, Spaulding Fibre, Polycast Technologies, Thermoplastic Processes, Poly Hi, Uniroyal, A.L. Hyde, Westinghouse, DuPont, Kenergy Skylights, Norton Chemplast and Harvel.

It began with a nameplate Clyde Robinson started the company in 1936. An electrical engineer, he served as head of the company until his son-in-law and current president Mark Brecher took over in 1978. Robinson continued to remain involved in the company until 1992. He died last year. Plastic-Craft made nameplates for Liberty Ships prior to World War II. Many of the ships used in the war needed labels on every single one of the control buttons within the ship. "That is is really how the company grew," says Brecher. "My father-in-law had a call from someone at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and got the contract to make hundreds of thousands of name plates. All were done by hand on tracing machines dating back to the 30s." In the mid-1950s, IBM became Plastic-Craft's biggest customer. According to Brecher, Plastic-Craft was bringing in approximately $500 thousand worth of business, fabricating circuit boards for the successful computer company. "It got to the point where my father-in-law got a little restrained," says Brecher. "He didn't want to focus to much in one area and decided to go elsewhere. But look at IBM today. If he only knew then what we know today." -- Chad Sypkens

"Since I started in this business in the 70s, the whole economy has changed," says Brecher. "Everyone is more aggressive, not only in our industry but in all industries. The overall competition has become much more keen too. There is less pie out there for everyone, maybe even more so than before.

"We can't be all things to all people all the time, but we try and stay very competitive in every area. However, we are still a growing company that has been in business for 60 years. We plan to continue on the same path of developing new customers and continuing to innovate our production in our particular niche and satisfy our customers.

"Everything is done on a personal relationship now," adds Brecher. "Before it was a business that would nickel or dime you to death. Now I have noticed in the last eight years it has transitioned back to being much more personal, which is the way we like it."

Click here to go to the PMF feature archives.

Plastics Machining & Fabricating
P: (847) 634-4347 F: (847) 634-4379 EMAIL: hfrankurba@aol.com	P.O. BOX 1400 LINCOLNSHIRE ILLINOIS 60069