ORLANDO, FLA. (April 16, 1 p.m. ET) — Thermoforming machinery manufacturer Maac Corp.found a creative automatic quick-mold-change solution for a Tier 1 automotive supplier.

“The customer had 15 tools and needed about two hours to make a change on its rotary thermoforming machine,” said Michael Alongi, Maac sales manager, in an interview at NPE2012 in Orlando. The Maac solution dropped that time to about one minute.

The unidentified customer in Illinois has multiple short runs and needed to make tool changes quickly.

Internal Maac design work beginning in September incorporated a “never-before-done” shuttle system in a new machine, Alongi noted. Shuttle-on and shuttle-off positions flank the 8-by-5-foot forming station.

The machine became operational in October and led to the customer in November placing an order for three more machines with the same solution. Maac is delivering those units in March and April.

Maac in Carol Stream, Ill., employs 100, occupies 50,000 square feet and operates “two and a half shifts six days a week,” Alongi said. His father, Paul Alongi, is Maac chief executive officer and was the 2006 thermoformer of the year for the Society of Plastics Engineers' Thermoforming Division.

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