Italian Manufacturer Sets Up in Michigan Aiming for Lightweight Plastics Market

The impetus for many non U.S.-based companies to build facilities in the U.S. is to be closer to customers. Sometimes it’s to be closer to a particular industry or supply chain.

The INglass Group SpA earlier this week announced it chose West Michigan as its new North American headquarters in order to capitalize on the growing market for lightweight composite materials, as reported by John Wiegand in mibiz.com

The company wants to tap into the automakers’ move to lightweighting, which is the term used taking weight out of vehicles. John Blundy, president of the company’s North American operations told mibiz.com that “ it will be a long way into the future before we reach a point where we’ve done everything that we can do (to take weight out of vehicles. I’d say that the development of plastic materials and the mechanical properties that these suppliers are trying to achieve are almost limitless.”

The company sells its hot runner systems — a series of heated components that inject molten plastic into mold cavities — to the heavy truck, heavy equipment and electronics industries.

Read more on lightweight material and INglass Group’s move to Michigan.