Graham Engineering Corp., York, PA, announced July 1 that it has acquired the assets and assumed certain liabilities of Welex Inc, a major provider of high-performance sheet extrusion solutions. This follows the Graham Group's acquisition of majority interest in American Kuhne (AK) in October 2012, furthering Graham's investment in plastic processing technologies. The Welex manufacturing operations are expected to be integrated into GEC's operations in York. David Schroeder, former President and CEO of Welex, has been appointed as the president of GEC, and Wolfgang Liebertz, current president of GEC, has assumed the role of CEO of the combined GEC/Welex organization.
"We welcome the addition of the Welex technology and team to the Graham Engineering and American Kuhne complement of leading technologies, people and capabilities, and, look forward to adding further technologies, businesses and talent to our technology platform," says founder Donald Graham.
Adds Bill Kerlin, chairman of GEC: "The addition of Welex creates multiple points of synergy for the markets that GEC, AK and Welex serve: for customers worldwide, for supplier partners, and employees of the companies. GEC is gaining a global leader and trusted brand in Welex, as well as an experienced executive in Schroeder, who has significant experience in plastics processing technologies and in conversion businesses."
With over four decades of leadership, innovation and performance globally, Welex has solutions installed in more than 3,000 customer locations in 69 countries. Welex innovations include co-extrusion and multi-layer methods that lead the industry as well as dozens of barrier lines installed globally.
GEC is an industry-leading supplier of extrusion blow-molding equipment and offers a complete range of monolayer and multilayer blow molding equipment and technology upgrades including: rotary wheel blow molders for bottle sizes from 85 mL up to 5-gallon packaging applications, shuttle machines for up to 10-liter capacity, reciprocating screw and shot-pot machinery for lightweight HDPE containers, and single and dual-head accumulator head industrial machines for up to 75-lb shot capacities.
Located in Ashaway, RI, American Kuhne is a leading global supplier of standard and customized single screw extruders, feed screws, and controls to multiple end-use applications, as well as complete extrusion systems for medical tubing, pipe, and profile. "Sales and customer support are unchanged by the acquisition," says Kerlin. "Welex, AK, and GEC customers will benefit from the coordination of the technologies, expertise, and experience of these industry leaders."
