From:Plastics News

Will Wood, left, and Dustin Kremer of Uway Extrusion LLC. (Bill Bregar)

ATLANTA — Uway Extrusion LLC has started producing extruders at its factory in Warren, Ohio.

The first extruder, a small laboratory machine, should be competed at the end of September and then shipped to a PolyOne Corp. facility in the Atlanta area, said Uway co-founder Dustin Kremer, who is the company’s sales engineer.

Uway also is building a machine for stock in Warren — a second extruder, which can turn out 5,000 pounds of material an hour, Kremer said.

Kremer and his partner, Will Wood, gave an update on Uway’s U.S. production in an interview at the Society of Plastics Engineers Thermoforming Conference in Atlanta.

Uway employs eight people in Warren. Kremer said once production ramps up next spring, the employment should double, to about 16 people.

At the Thermoforming Conference, Uway showed an extruder in a booth shared with its U.S. distributor, Plastics Machinery Group of Solon, Ohio. Uway marks the first extruder business for PMG.

In Warren, Uway is using part of the factory space of Bloom Industries Inc., a custom injection molder.

Kremer and Wood started Uway in 2011. The company runs two plants in China, making single-screw and twin-screw extruders. The extruders sold in the United States have 25 percent Chinese content, including the frame and some other components, Kremer said.

Uway decided to locate in Warren, in the Youngstown area, because it is a U.S. center of extrusion expertise and the manufacturing of screws, barrels, chill rolls and other components. Kremer said the location is good to source those parts for new machines, and for spare parts — a key consideration when deciding Uway’s U.S. manufacturing location.

Kremer comes from a processing background, since his family owns Futurex Industries Inc., a custom sheet extruder in Bloomingdale, Ind.