50 year old specialist plastics manufacturing company advances technology and exports to the world
Celebrating more than 50 years in the plastics industry, New South Wales based McNeall Plastics is investing in advanced technology to further enhance volume capabilities and deliver national and international customers consistently high precision machined and milled components.
Servicing customers across the broadest range of industries including mining, energy, pharmaceutical, transport, automotive, packaging, building and construction, bulk handling, foundries and many more, the company is looking to the future to expand on its reputation as a leading supplier of high quality Engineered Plastics.
The latest acquisition is the recently commissioned Okuma CNC Lathe Genos L3000-eMYx1000 with OSP-P300LA-Controller and accessories, which is already enhancing volumes and size capabilities in precision components and will allow the company to produce tooling for casting moulds in-house.
“The selection of the Okuma machine was an easy one for us as the name is known throughout the industry as one of the highest precision machine brands available and the technical support and training from Okuma is just outstanding,’ said McNeall Plastics Managing Director Josh Budd.
McNeall Plastics has the only major nylon casting facility in Australia and has formulated and perfected AUSTLON®, a robust hard wearing nylon polymer material which is regarded as unparalleled in performance in the most demanding conditions. It is resistant to high impact, abrasion, brittleness, vibration and UV deterioration. The product is flexible in design, easily machined and has applications in the food industry as well as mining, quarrying etc. It has higher mechanical strength than most industrial plastics and the highest mechanical strength in cast nylons.
AUSTANE, is another specially formulated premium grade polyurethane by McNeall which has been developed for extreme dynamic applications. It is produced by a special hot casting process either manually or by machine to open moulds, adhering firmly to a variety of base materials. It has unsurpassed mechanical properties; resistance to abrasion and tears, excellent impact resistance and is lightweight. This product has such a wide range of applications such as materials handling, casters, paper cyclones, blades, screens, chute linings, rollers, crane buffers, valve linings, bridge bearings, process and form rollers, grippers for packaging equipment and any component made from rubber.
A wide range of Polyethylene HD, Acetal and Teflon products are also produced for machine parts, chain wear strips, chute and hopper liners, guide strips, cutting boards etc.
With such a range of plastic materials, McNeall offers its customers a complete consultancy service drawing on its experienced team of Mechanical Engineers to provide advice on suitable and alternative materials in a one stop shop for cut to size and fabricated plastic parts. The design service offered by the company involves comprehensive market leading technology including 3D modelling software enabling stress loadings, clearances, tolerances and much more to meet and exceed the application requirements.
Comprehensive custom machining by the company includes CNC turning, routing, milling, spindle moulding, grinding, waterjet cutting, laser cutting and stamping.
“Today the company is focusing on its ever expanding Australian and International client base with Australian manufactured high quality products. It is negating logistic challenges for customers with shorter lead times and fast turn arounds and again competitively producing components being drawn back from overseas suppliers,” said Josh Budd.
“The new Okuma CNC Lathe is opening the door to new high and low volume precision components for the company in areas such as aerospace, defence and medical and our operators love the machine, with moral through the roof, marvelling at the quality of the finished product,” he said.
Okuma Managing Director, Dean McCarroll commented “Our leading edge Okuma machines continue to enhance competitive Australian manufacturing and it is exciting to witness many products returning to Australia for manufacture due to the expertise and skills here along with the many logistic advantages that go with local manufacturing. There is strong evidence that McNeall Plastics, like many other Australian manufacturers are taking products to the world market and winning,” he said.