Year in Review: Ace plays its cards, continues to grow in 2018

It was a big year for Ace Products and Consulting.

The Ravenna, Ohio-based company added 3,500 square feet to its operations, bringing the total to 10,500 square feet. The move is designed to offer testing capabilities to bridge the rubber and silicone markets in addition to providing industry education.

Speaking of education, Ace grew on that front, too. The firm launched its education center iLearn and hired Christie Robinson, the Rubber Division's former training and development director, to run the program.

The institute is designed to further the education and development of technical employees, students and company training. Housed at the firm, the center has a classroom and hands-on laboratory space.

And there's plenty more room to grow—Ace is housed in a 172,000-sq.-ft. industrial park on 72 acres of land.

Another double down

Glacial Lakes Rubber & Plastics Co. L.L.C. recently doubled its operations in Watertown, S.D., again—this time bringing its manufacturing footprint to 68,000 square feet.

It's the second time the company has doubled in size since CEO Robb Peterson founded the operation in 2014, in the wake of Minnesota Rubber & Plastics relocating its South Dakota operation to Mexico. The latest project should be operational by the spring of 2019.

The firm's primary business is rubber soles for Vibram, but it also produces other rubber products for the automotive, agriculture and heavy off-road industrial industries.

It was asked to represent South Dakota at the White Hose as part of President Trump's Made in America Product Showcase in July. The event highlighted manufacturing companies from each state across the U.S.

Philpott reshores production

Philpott Solutions Group disclosed plans to shift operations back to the U.S., shutting down its operation in China and relocating those jobs to its new facility in Aurora, Ohio.

The move is driven by Philpott's desire for quality. The firm found that the parts it was sourcing from China were not up to par from a quality standpoint and had to be inspected by a facility in San Diego. This, in turn, negated the upfront price savings from manufacturing in China.

The situation became intolerable, leading Philpott to regain control of the quality process.

Kent grows headquarters

Kent Elastomer Products Inc. has big plans for the next 10 years, and those begin with a $1.7 million investment throughout its operations in the coming months.

The most recent is a $1 million addition to its Kent, Ohio, headquarters, which will add about 1,400 square feet for an additional six offices and a conference room, which will allow the firm to transition its current conference room and adjacent office into a training area.

Kent intends to add jobs to its growing sales team, as well.

But that's just the beginning. Kent has set an ambitious goal to double its sales—which would exceed $60 million—within the next 10 years. It plans to add 3,400 square feet for more warehouse space at its Kent site to free up room for more manufacturing. It also intends to enclose one of its existing lines in Mogadore, Ohio, within a newly established Class 1,000 clean room by mid-2019.

And the firm already invested $1.2 million in 2017 throughout its facilities, including its site in Winesburg, Ohio.

Other moves of note

Small to mid-sized companies were particularly busy in 2018. Here's a look at a number of other notable activities:

• Great Lakes Rubber Co. Inc. has made a number of investments to enhance its ability to take on new business. Most recently, it introduced a new family of fluoroelastomers, adding multiple injection molding machines and an automated molding cell.

• Urethane products maker Seco Machine decided to build a new plant in Green, Ohio, investing $8 million on a 120,000-sq.-ft. site that began construction in July. The firm makes cast urethane products and is a division of A. Stucki Co.

• Jrlon Inc. broke into rubber manufacturing for the first time with the acquisition of RotaDyne Corp.'s Engineered Products Division. Based in Spencerport, N.Y., the division produces compression molded elastomers, small rubber rollers and offers precision CNC machining. Jrlon started as a high-performance plastics processor, but has since seen its CNC machining business grow significantly and is now ready to add rubber production.

• Heico Corp. found what it branded an ideal company to add to its portfolio in Specialty Silicone Products Inc. The firm acquired the producer of silicone products for a variety of high-demand industries on Nov. 1 for an undisclosed amount.