PMT: An Emerging Plastics Power

In a span of just five months over the second half of 2021, Plastic Molding Technology (PMT), Centennial, Colo., completed four acquisitions of injection molding, moldmaking, thermoforming and extrusion operations in Colorado and Texas, creating the basis for what it hopes will eventually be a plastics processing power located in the western U.S. but with reach well beyond that geography.

Targeted for strategic fit and core competencies, with a requisite nod to financial health, the newly acquired companies are now undergoing integration into PMT’s corporate vision — voted upon and agreed to by its employees — as it seeks to build, in the words of CEO Michael Engler, a “world-class organization.”

Engler says, “We actually did a survey inside our business across all employees that got us to agree on what we want our real mission and vision to be. From that high-minded effort to forge and share a corporate philosophy, PMT’s integration work extends to the more mundane as well: create a uniform quoting process and upgrade IT and back-office technologies, including establishing a shared CRM (Salesforce) and ERP (DELMIAworks, formerly IQMS).
 

Plastics Professionals

All of these activities fall under an integration initiative. In a second-story conference room overlooking the company’s most recently created molding floor at a facility southeast of Denver, Engler spins around his laptop to share the down-to-the-bullet-point assimilation plan. Located in the appendix of a slide deck, the scheme applies to PMT’s marketing, sales, assets, management team, accounting/finance, operations and systems.

“When I talk about integration, I see it as a very structured process,” Engler says, “It’s not happenstance.” Each business aspect is scored with a radar chart where blackened quadrants denote progress, although integration is never really completed. “Think of it like 5S,” Engler says, referencing the lean manufacturing methodology that calls for continuous improvement: “You’re never done.”

To begin to satisfy the asset portion of the process, PMT classified its roughly 100 injection molding machines across all sites. At that time, those included two facilities in Colorado — Altratek Plastics in Longmont and Pikes Peak Plastics in Colorado Springs — as well as Plastic Molding Technology in El Paso, Texas, which was the final acquisition in the 2021 shopping spree and whose name was adopted for the new combined company. Presses were catalogued with A, B or C rankings. “’A’ machines are top of the line, ready to run,” Engler explains. “’B’ machines are maybe getting a little older but have no major issues, and ‘C’ machines are targets to replace.” PMT didn’t stop at injection molding machines, however, as the equipment review extended to everything on the shop floor, from temperature-control units and robots to forklifts and air compressors.

“When I talk about integration, I see it as a very structured process. It’s not happenstance.”

“Why is that important?” Engler asks. “Now we work the plan. Each year when we’re developing our budget, there are no secrets,” so that C machines are targeted for replacement with an eye on improved productivity, as well as the customer’s best interests. “If I have ‘C’ machines that are highly utilized,” Engler says, “I’m putting my customers at risk. So maybe my business process is to buy a new piece of equipment and then start to mitigate risk.”
 

A Home Base

As PMT worked to create a cohesive whole from its collection of acquisitions, Engler knew the company would need a headquarters facility. It found that structure, and additional core competencies in Plastics Design & Manufacturing (PDM), Centennial, Colo. Acquired in May 2021, PDM is located south of Denver in what’s known as the Tech Center. In business for more than 40 years, the custom heavy-gauge thermoformer, which also has a profile extrusion operation, operates in an 80,000-ft² space.

Upon taking over, PMT brought in 10 injection molding machines, including five brand-new presses, putting the first machine on the floor before there were even electrical utilities in place to run it. When Plastics Technology visited last month, two more injection machines were on their way, joining nine new Yushin robots, including two 6-axis Fanuc models. Mold racks, new overhead cranes and a jib crane were also installed, and PMT is still awaiting delivery of two material silos and a cooling tower.

At this time, the plant uses two portable chillers to supply process water, and it goes through 50,000 to 60,000 lb of resin a week, with each press burning through two gaylords daily, as PMT anxiously awaits its silos and, eventually, a centralized material-handling and drying system. The first four machines on the molding floor — all-electric Toyo’s — are committed to one customer and run six dedicated tools for a renewable-energy project. Once the six-axis robots are integrated, PMT’s plan is to make this machine group fully “4.0,” running nearly lights-out, with only one material handler managing the floor.

All this injection molding is new, but the legacy thermoforming and extrusion operations at the facility are not. The thermoforming footprint includes 12 machines with capabilities in drape, vacuum and pressure forming, including two- and three-station rotary and two-station pressure-forming shuttle and single-station machines. Molds as large as 10 × 10 ft can be run, and the operation includes three- and five-axis CNC machining for post-forming finishing, as well as in-house toolmaking using epoxy, wood and aluminum forms. Certified AS 9100 for defense and aerospace work, the operation also boasts a paint room and the ability to add EMI shielding.

When Plastics Technology visited, parts in production varied from components for communications, including an 80-in. telecom dome and various 5G parts (with 7G already being quoted), as well as components for an autonomous vehicle and various helicopter applications, including floors, being retrofitted into decommissioned Blackhawk helicopters that are being converted to help combat forest fires.

“Buying four companies in less than one year was very stressful. Now we need to make some money and pay some bills.”

On the extrusion side, parking targets — extruded and cut profiles that are adhered to a garage floor to indicate to a driver when a vehicle is properly situated — were running last month. The facility has six single-screw extrusion lines targeting open and closed profiles, as well as pipes, including parts for hydroponic farming. The parking target application actually allows PMT to run zero landfill with company-wide plastic scrap reincorporated into the black profiles. Depending on the scrap mix, PMT alters the adhesive used to secure the parts to the garage floor on the basis of compatibility.

One hour north in Longmont, Colo., PMT operates an additional injection molding and moldmaking operation. Featuring 14 all-electric Toyo injection machines from 55 to 400 tons that are just six years old or newer, this molding operation specializes in highly glass-filled parts, with many applications destined for sporting goods. All the machines feature sprue pickers, and there are brand-new three-axis robots on two of the presses. Including the tool shop that’s five minutes down the road, the two facilities cover 18,000 ft². The toolmaking operation has three moldmakers on staff and offers full design, fabrication and repair, as well as sampling capabilities from a lone press. It built 20 tools in 2022.

A Beachhead

Across the three sites in Colorado and Texas, PMT has just under 250,000 ft² of space and more than 100 vertical and horizontal molding machines, ranging in clamp force from 20 to 500 tons, with insert, overmolding and two-component capabilities. The company also bought out the lease of the company that was using the other half of the building it purchased in Centennial, giving PMT another 40,000 ft² to move into as it expands. PMT also owns the land, offering further expansion opportunity. Featuring 33-ft ceilings, two office areas and two shipping and receiving docks, the site gives PMT an anchor point as it continues to establish what Engler calls a “beachhead of competencies.”

With the backing of California investment firm Tide Rock (Cardiff by the Sea), which has deployed close to $350 million in capital over the last two years, PMT will at present focus on continuing to incorporate its acquisitions. Beyond strictly plastics plays, Tide Rock’s 2022 acquisitions included two metal operations, Accu-Fab and Fabcon; and Adura LED Solutions, which manufactures custom LED modules, PCBs and Chip-on-Board (COB) LEDs.

“When you buy four different businesses with four different teams, four different cultures, and four different ways of doing business, you need integration and stabilization of those processes,” Engler says, noting that if an acquisition opportunity presents itself in the coming year, the company will consider it, but the present moment might call for something else. “Right now, buying four companies in less than one year was very stressful,” Engler says laughing. “Now we need to make some money and pay some bills.”