Ashley's new factory to use Chinese-made machines

An American processor of sheet molding compound has turned to a Tianjin-based machinery maker to supply three mammoth, 4,000-ton compression molding machines as part of a US$15 million expansion that involves opening a new plant in the midwestern state of Iowa.

Ashley, Indiana-based Ashley Industrial Molding Inc. said it will outfit its second plant with machines made by Tianjin Tianduan Press Co. Ltd. Greenerd Press&Machine Co. Inc. of Nashua, New Hampshire, the Chinese firm's exclusive sales and service representative in North America, is coordinating the deal, which will require some major logistics.

After the massive machines were disassembled in China, the compression presses took up 60 percent of an ocean freighter, Schoon said. Then they were shipped on four barges up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Dubuque, Iowa, where the components are being delivered to Oelwein on 53 semi-truck loads.

They are the biggest-ever compression molding machines for Ashley Industrial. The Indiana factory runs nine SMC presses, topping out at a clamping force of 3,000 tons, and four reaction injection molding machines. The company also does painting, robotic routing and trimming, and robotic adhesive dispensing, and processes bioresins for Deere&Co.

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