Smith Metal Products, the metal and ceramic injection molding division of Plastic Products Company, Inc., broke ground in Center City, MN for a new state of the art 60,000 square foot manufacturing facility. Smith manufactures metal and ceramic components via the Metal Injection Molding (MIM) and Ceramic Injection Molding (CIM) process. Their high quality precision components are used in a wide variety of industries and applications including long term implant devices, surgical devices, electronics, military, aerospace, firearms and everyday consumer products.
Smith currently supplies customers around the globe from their world-class manufacturing facility in Lindstrom, Minnesota. In addition the company maintains a Sales and Engineering office on the West Coast. The new facility will relocate the company three miles from their current location to a new industrial park. The new site will allow for future expansion. Lori Bjork, General Manager of Smith remarked that the new facility is needed to meet future growth targets and support our customer base. "We are fortunate to be one of the manufacturing companies in the US who has continued to grow in this challenging economy." Bjork attributed their success to the company's dedication to provide customers with value and solutions oriented product manufacturing. "American manufacturers cannot ignore foreign competition. We have to do what we have always done best; lead as the world's innovators creating value for the customer by offering advanced engineering solutions to complex problems." Smith exhibits this type of innovation on a daily basis and is proud to be a part of reversing the trend of sending jobs overseas.
Mike Brown, Director of Sales & Marketing remarked on this trend. "One of our company's guiding principles is to be as socially and environmentally conscious as possible. Producing products near point of use not only decreases the environmental footprint, it creates opportunities for highly skilled jobs here in the US. To maintain our competitiveness we rely heavily on automated systems rather than low skilled manual labor. We consider it one of our greatest achievements when we can work with a customer to discontinue manufacturing components overseas. By leveraging our talented and innovative engineering specialists, we have been able to either prevent projects from going overseas or return projects to the US. We don't just look at a project from the component level. We look for novel ways to reduce costs beginning with raw materials through the end consumer.
Having similar minded partners like BASF Corporation, who supplies the majority of Smith's raw materials, is essential to the overall success of our projects. BASF is a trusted partner providing high quality materials and technical support complementing Smith's proven molding expertise. Smith has been able to leverage this close working relationship to push both the technical and economic limits of Metal Injection Molding.
For more information on Smith Metal Products please visit their website at www.mimparts.com or by contacting Mike Brown at 270-303-1041.
For more information on BASF Corporation please visit their website at www.catamold.com.