Integral Technologies Inc., a light-weighting manufacturer based in Bellingham, Wash., with a tech center in Canton, has secured its largest order in the company’s history for ElectriPlast, a resin-based material used in the automotive, aerospace and defense industries.
The order was placed by Chang Rim Inc., a specialty molder based in Daegu, South Korea, its first commercial order from Integral.
“For the last nine months, we have been supporting Chang Rim’s development work with various resins, including this new ElectriPlast formulation,” says Doug Bathauer, CEO, Integral Technologies. “Chang Rim’s new consumer product incorporating our new blend is one of the results from those efforts.
“ElectriPlast is exiting the development stage and entering into the commercial phase,” Bathauer says. “Sales to this point have been for prototyping and very small commercial orders (100’s of pounds). This marks the first commercial order of significance.”
Bathauer says Chang Rim will require nearly 50 tons per year of this new formulation once they start full production. “The South Korean market, overall, has been an early adopter in recognizing the technological and economic significance of ElectriPlast,” Bathauer says.
ElectriPlast is manufactured in Evansvillle, Ind. into a pellet by extruding a plastic resin containing metal fibers rather than mixing the resin with fibers (as is done with other conductive plastics). The pellet can be fabricated into virtually any shape or dimension for almost any manufacturing industry.
The ElectriPlast formulation being supplied has been developed in close coordination with Chang Rim and includes a new base resin with nickel-plated carbon fiber, using Integral’s proprietary manufacturing process
“This is one of the products, along with the motor casing and enclosure that we have been developing with ElectriPlast’s support,” says Won-Hyun Kwon, president, Chang Rim Inc. “The first product we developed was for the automotive market which we anticipate going into production shortly. This new product is a consumer product that we anticipate production to start at 30,000 units per month, and ramping up to 100,000 units per month.”
Initial ElectriPlast quantities for the order have been produced and shipped.
Bathauer says the Integral is at various stages of selling the material to other companies in the United States and he anticipates adding to the engineering staff at the tech center in Canton.