Teknor Apex Company is a leading international custom compounder of advanced polymer materials. Founded in 1924, the company is headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and has eight manufacturing locations in the USA, and one each in Singapore, China, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.

One of Teknor Apex’s eight business units is Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPE), and this division is one of the world’s largest TPE compounders. Part of their success is attributable to the service and support they’ve received from ENTEK Extruders. Since 1997, ENTEK has worked to supply Teknor Apex with replacement wear parts including screws, barrels, and gearboxes for their non-ENTEK brand twin-screw extruders.

Establishing a TPE Quality Standard

According to Paul Burke, Vice President of Manufacturing at Teknor Apex’s plant in St. Albans, Vermont, ENTEK has done more than supply extruder parts; their support has actually helped Teknor Apex establish its TPE quality standards worldwide.

“We have worked together with ENTEK for many years to establish our TPE technologies in the USA, Asia, and Europe,” he said. “Their support has helped us tremendously. We have no worries of scale-up or equivalent quality from any of our production plants around the world.”

Non-ENTEK Machine Support? No Problem!

The story of how ENTEK began working with Teknor Apex is not unlike many other ENTEK customer stories – Teknor Apex approached them out of frustration, as the company needed replacement parts for their non-ENTEK twin-screw extruders.

“They were having trouble getting the parts they needed from their OEM to keep their

twin-screw extruders up and running,” said Bill Petrozelli, ENTEK’s Regional Sales Manager. “We were able to machine and deliver replacement parts that worked better than their originals. On top of that, we provided valuable processing advice. Once we were able to

do that, we had a loyal customer.

A Custom Machine

Since 1997, ENTEK has provided numerous retrofits to Teknor Apex for their non-ENTEK machines, and has worked tirelessly with them to help improve their processing. Besides providing replacement screws, barrels, and even gearboxes for the twin-screw extruders, ENTEK even built Teknor Apex a non-standard sized twin-screw extruder in 2010 at the company’s request. That machine was shipped to Singapore and continues to run flawlessly today at that plant.

“ENTEK has always been there for us when we needed support for our twin-screw extruders,” said Paul Burke. “It is the type of customer service a global player like Teknor Apex needs to ensure the highest quality standards. We consider ENTEK a valued partner.”

(published in June 2013 Extrusion Solutions Newsletter)