Welcome to the latest issue of Extrusion Solutions.

20 Years of ENTEK Extruders

Back in 1998, ENTEK, a company that had been in business for 14 years, decided to embark on a new venture – to manufacture and supply twin-screw extruders to the plastics compounding industry.  We had some experience – after all, ENTEK was already known as a leading supplier of highly-filled sheet for battery separators, and we used commercially available twin-screw extruders for this application.

But there was a problem – we were wearing out screws and barrels with our materials, and we weren’t satisfied with spare parts availability.  Our engineers and machinists took on the challenge of producing our own screws and barrels in-house – and then we decided to build our own twin-screw extruders as well.  We felt our machines were second to none, and the decision was made to become a machine supplier to the industry.

Here we are 20 years later – and we’re happy to report that our decision back in 1998 was a good one.  Today, ENTEK has hundreds of twin-screw extruders in operation around the world, and we’re growing at a record pace.  We now offer machines ranging from 27mm to 133mm and have an excellent staff at our Lebanon, Oregon headquarters and in the field supporting our customers every step of the way.

Thank you to all of our customers – your business is much appreciated.  We will continue to work with you to help you improve your compounding operations and look forward to our continued, mutual success in the future!

Growth – Continued

In the article on p. 4 you will see we are once again expanding our facilities here in Lebanon.  Due to our continued growth we needed more space in our manufacturing area for fabrication, assembly, testing and shipping.  We’re excited to have this latest expansion completed so we can create a better workflow through the building, which will help us operate even more efficiently.

NPE Recap

In the last issue of Extrusion Solutions, I wrote about the upcoming NPE show in Orlando.  The show was held from May 7-11 and I’m happy to report it was a great show for ENTEK, and for the plastics industry.  Enthusiasm was high, and we enjoyed seeing existing and prospective customers.

I enjoyed seeing large crowds gather at our booth twice a day to see our live screw change demonstrations.  Colt McDaniel, who works in our Pilot Plant, was chosen to perform the screw changes and he did a great job under pressure – after all, we told the world that the screw change could be done in 5 minutes or less!  We timed Colt and I believe his fastest time was in 3 minutes 30 seconds.  Visitors to the booth were impressed.  As anyone who has performed screw changes on a twin-screw extruder knows, it can be a difficult task and usually takes over an hour or longer.  ENTEK has found a way to take that task and reduce it down to 5 minutes or less – a real advantage for compounders who do frequent color changes and need to change out screws on a frequent basis.

Thank you to all of our customers for their continued support.

As always, I encourage you to contact me anytime at khanawalt@entek.com.

Sincerely,

 

Dr. Kirk Hanawalt

President, ENTEK Extruders