Consistently Rep-resenting in a changing landscape

KODAK, Tenn.—Rep International, which maintains the tagline "rubber in motion," has been anything but static for the last several years.

The company has been proactive in adapting to shifting markets, an aging rubber industry work force and Industry 4.0.

And the geographic region that the injection and compression mold machine manufacturing company serves in North America, with its headquarters in Kodak, has been in motion as well.

The automotive "Rust Belt," once the exclusive property of Ohio and Michigan and the northern Midwest, has shifted south.

"Traditional automotive has always gravitated toward the Rust Belt, but in recent years we have watched as that has inched southward," Derek Williams, vice president of sales at Rep. Corp., told Rubber News. "And we wanted to follow that migration."

There are an increasing number of Japanese transplant companies in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama who make finished products, Williams said.

"We want to have a presence to move with the Nissans, Toyotas, Hondas—and the Tier 2 manufacturers who come with them," Williams said. "With our northern customers in Ohio and Michigan, this gives us fluidity and a market presence that is still in traditional rubber areas. From New England and around to the other side of the lakes and as far south as Florida—the lion's share of the market is there."

The Corbas, France-based Rep is embracing the tectonic shifts in the industries it serves, from the onset of EVs to Industry 4.0 and automation along its production lines.

Flexibility has been in Rep's DNA since its inception, Williams said.

The company was founded by Robert Esnault-Pelterie (R.E.P.), an aviation pioneer and a major theorist in the field of astronautics, in 1907.

In 1948, Rep constructed its first plastic injection molding machine, and in 1961 the firm pioneered innovations that allowed for rubber injection molding.

And in just the past several years, Rep has tacked once again, this time toward the machining requirements for EV and hybrid parts.

"Our first sales congress is happening next month in Europe," Williams said. "And Rep has evolved—we have the G10 range, and our G11 has gone from research and development to initial feasibility studies.

"We are staying true to our core values with niche market applications for niche market businesses as they emerge."

For example, hydrogen fuel cells, requiring bipolar plates, are manufactured with a press that requires a very large platen.

"And this is very un-rubber like," Williams said. "Seeing this as markets emerge, Rep has always been at the forefront, whether for EV or ICE parts, or NVH components.

"Make no mistake, Tier 1 and 2 manufacturers are making some long-term decisions and looking at their own business models with scrutiny."

Williams added that "about 90 percent" of Rep machines have some form of customization anyway.

"Sometimes it is something simple, sometimes it is not," he said. "We have been respected with our injection molding machines across the world, minimizing cycle times and maximizing quality.

"We do not sell marketing gimmicks. This is understood in our industry."

Typically, Rep serves the vertical injection press market more than the horizontal press market, though the product being produced determines the machine that is used.

"For gaskets, you probably want horizontal, as you can take advantage of gravity," Williams said. "For us, as we pursue the horizontal (injection press) market, we know who our customers need to be. We can see these products that require this process in their portfolios, so we know who these potential customers are."

Robotics plays a big part in horizontal press applications, with little to no intervention necessary from an employee on the floor.

"You need a smooth operation," he said. "Compression is still a very valid process in our industry—that we would see the death of compression is far from truth. It is doing exceedingly well."

Enter Rep 4.0 and automation, the solutions to a number of industry challenges—including an aging and sparse work force, production downtime and traceability.

Today, the average age of a rubber manufacturing worker is around 60 years. And the slough in skilled machine manufacturing workers across the industry is no secret.

"The maturing demographic of the rubber manufacturing industry work force has resulted in a big gap, a gap that is not being filled by the next generation," Williams said. "As a result, customers in a growth envelope cannot run the presses they currently own.

"You cannot download that experience to another generation."

Automation and robotics can help spread out that labor that is present, Williams said.

"There can be one person who monitors production on an entire production cell, instead of four people on one machine," he said.

And automation has enabled maintenance at Rep that now is almost beyond predictive.

As its own part of Industry 4.0, Rep 4.0 is software that links presses to data banks, saving critical product analytics, mold setting transfer information and, perhaps most importantly, traceability information.

"The Connectivity of Things and Industry 4.0 is huge," Williams said. "Our machines can be integrated to gather information specifically for automotive. Remember when recalls were infrequent? The capture of a recall quickly can mean the difference between thousands of cars and millions of cars, from a traceability standpoint."

In an earlier time, customers had no access to traceability.

"This is something Rep has been paramount in ensuring. ... It just makes us more competitive to be able to catch things as they occur in real time," Williams said. "When we enter a new market, right from very first contact we are asked, 'How can we automate?' It is paramount that we can do this as a supplier.

"Rep will evolve. There is no such thing as a revolutionary change at Rep."

Rep International on April 4 dismissed the former president of its Rep Corp. N.A. subsidiary, James Wirtz II.

The company has declined comment on the nature of the dismissal.

Williams said Wirtz has not yet been replaced, and the segment still is being led by Rep International CEO Bruno Tabar.

"I will say that hire will be made at some point, but no timeline has been set yet," he said. "What we have done in the interim as we take the next steps to fill this leadership position is maintain a presence once or twice per month from France, where they provide some oversight.

"But we are fairly autonomous in the U.S. We pride ourselves on aftersales and Tier 1 sales, and we operate with some assistance from Europe."

A number of factors—Russia's war in Ukraine, global inflation and labor force issues, among others—has placed Europe in a tenuous economic position, Williams said.

"Europe is not in a happy place economically," he said. "And that has caused interest to pick back up greatly in North America. We (North America) have become a focus of the international automotive market contraction in Europe. The war in Ukraine, inflation, energy costs—all of these things are impacting markets."

Williams expressed confidence in the short-term future of Rep. Corp.'s North American leadership.

"We want to ensure our customers, as well as those interested in investing, that our new direction and transition to that direction has been seamless," he said. "In the interim, as we look for a new president, we are doing quite well with leadership, to be honest."

The machinery firm disclosed the Wirtz dismissal in an April 6 post on its corporate LinkedIn page, in which it also said Tabar will lead the U.S. unit until a new president can be named.

The U.S. subsidiary provides sales and technical support to about 200 North American customers, according to Rep International's website.

Rep, to date, has produced 12,000 injection molding machines for customers in more than 57 countries.

Rep told Rubber News in April that it gains just more than half of its sales from Europe, with 23 percent from the U.S., 21 percent from Asia and 5 percent from the Middle East.