NEWS Vuteq to build US plant
Vuteq USA, the US subsidiary of the Japanese Tier 1 automotive supplier, is to spend over $60m to open its first manufacturing facility in Alabama. This will produce interior and exterior injection moulded parts and sub- assemblies for the $1.6bn Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA auto assembly plant, which is now under construc- tion on a 1,000-hectare site at Huntsville.
Construction work at the
Vuteq facility is scheduled to begin in October and be completed in September 2020, followed by initial pro- duction trials of equipment, moulds and secondary systems. Production is expected to begin in 2021. The company is already recruiting and employment will reach about 200. The Vuteq site will also house several other manu-
Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA is building an auto assembly plant at Huntsville
facturing companies, including the Diversity Vuteq minority joint venture. This will be the fifth of the network of parts suppliers in North Alabama to support the Huntsville assembly operation. In total, these companies are investing $440m and creating nearly 1,700 jobs. Vuteq employs 13,000 worldwide and supplies Toyota with various services including logistics and parts such as interior trim, door trim and cockpit assemblies. This will be its first work with Mazda. The company began North American operations in 1987 at Toyota’s assembly plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, and has others in Indiana, Texas, Mississippi and Ontario, Canada �
www.vutequsa.com
Pexco acquires two more firms
Speciality plastics extruder Pexco of Al- pharetta, Georgia, US, has acquired both American Extruded Plastics (AEP) and American Injection Moulding (AIM) from founder Marshall Eakes. The two firms are based in the same facility at Greensboro, North Carolina, and supply the life sciences and diagnostics, telecommunications, agriculture, automotive, construction, consumer goods and packaging markets.
Pexco CEO Sam Patel said: “The addition
of moulded plastics to our existing base of core competencies aligns well with our ongoing desire to broaden Pexco’s overall value proposition by providing integrated solutions to our customers.” The company sells standard and speciality
extruded parts and components for custom applications. �
www.pexco.com
IAC to expand UK presence
The International Auto- motive Components (IAC) Group is to expand its main facility in the UK at Elmdon, near Birming- ham, including highly automated process manufacturing. It has signed an 11-year lease for two buildings, with a total floor space of 28,800 m2
.
The site will be used for manufacturing, assembly and sequenc- ing. It will also house certain centralised functions, including engineering, programme management, commer- cial, finance and IT. The decision follows
growth through supply- ing to multiple models for its sole customer, Jaguar Land Rover. IAC, which is headquartered in Luxembourg, currently supplies components and interior trim to the Land Rover and Range Rover models. It antici- pates full production at the site in 2021 and will create an additional 400 jobs in the region. �
www.iacgroup.com
Toyoda Gosei in 3D printer investment
Japan’s Toyoda Gosei is to invest about $420,000 in Slab, a Kyoto venture company that manufactures plastic 3D printers, with a view to improving their speed and precision. “This will both speed up product
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development and advance the development of flexible production technology for the efficient manufacturing of low-volume, high-mix products,” it said. The company added that the automotive industry “is
INJECTION WORLD | September 2019
going through a time of accelerated change, with intensified competition in the development of new connected, autonomous, shared, electric (CASE) technologies. This demands technical innovations in
development and produc- tion that are not bound by existing frameworks.” Until now, the use of plastic 3D printers has been limited because of product quality and forming times. �
www.toyoda-gosei.com
www.injectionworld.com
PHOTO: MTMUS
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