Equipment Report

Photo courtesy of Sierra

Sierra expands Georgia facility

Bakersfield, California-based Sierra International Machinery is expanding its manufacturing facility in Jesup, Georgia. The company cites “the overwhelming demand for the Sierra REB line of two-ram balers and conveyors” as having prompted the expansion.

This marks Sierra’s fourth expansion project at the Jesup facility since it opened in 2008. The expansion will add 24,000 square feet to the facility and will allow the company to increase its production capacity to meet steady demand for its product line, Sierra says.

“I’m incredibly excited to be able to expand for our fourth time in Jesup, Georgia,” Sierra President and co-owner John Sacco says. “The market acceptance of our machines has been so great that we need to increase our capacity to move more equipment through to be able to deliver on a more timely basis.”

Sacco continues, “The team at Sierra in Georgia has done incredible work of delivering quality products [and] top engineering, and it’s time we expand again.”

Every machine in the Sierra product line passes through the Georgia facility, according to the company. Additionally, every Sierra two-ram baler and conveyor is fully engineered, manufactured and assembled at the Georgia location.

The company calls the Jesup plant “truly the birthplace of the Sierra two-ram balers,” referring to a product line that offers three different baler models—REB-1, REB-2 and REB-4— and numerous conveyor models.

Once the expansion project is completed, Sierra’s Georgia manufacturing facility will measure 96,000 square feet in size.

Erema purchases stake in compact equipment maker

Austria-based Erema Group GmbH has acquired a 19.8 percent stake in Plasticpreneur GmbH, which Erema describes as an Austrian startup company founded two years ago that makes reprocessing systems for plastic scrap that are mobile and can be operated with minimal training.

In the two years since it was founded, Plasticpreneur has sold 330 machines to customers in more than 70 countries, according to Erema. Plasticpreneur also makes application-specific, custom-built molds designed to comply with individual customer specifications.

“The young founders and their dedicated team exude pioneering spirit, want to shape the future with their work and put their heart and soul into the circular economy and plastics recycling, just like we do in the Erema group,” says Erema CEO Manfred Hackl regarding Plasticpreneur.

Plasticpreneur systems could help bring plastic reprocessing technology to more remote and poorer regions of the world, according to Erema. “Our mission, ‘Another life for plastic, because we care,’ is also aimed at supporting these regions with solutions for plastic recycling, and with Plasticpreneur we have found the ideal partner for this,” Hackl says.

The startup company’s machines can process high-density polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, low-density polyethylene, polylactic acid, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and thermoplastic polyurethane separately, according to Erema. Plasticpreneur’s product range includes a shredder, an injection molding unit, an extruder unit to make end products, air filters and custom-built molds.

“For our machines to be used in regions with little infrastructure, they must be easy to operate without prior knowledge,” says Sören Lex, CEO and co-founder of Plasticpreneur. “The fact that we also develop end-product solutions needed locally makes our range of services particularly attractive here. As soon as recycling also becomes a source of income for the operators, they become entrepreneurs.”

He adds, “Plasticpreneur customers in these countries include social enterprises and operators of refugee camps, where everyday consumer goods—from clothes pegs and school supplies to toys and fence posts—are produced and sold using plastic [scrap].”

Erema says demand for Plasticpreneur machines is increasing in industrialized countries as educational institutions and organizations use them in workshops to raise awareness of the need for a circular economy.

Erema says other buyers of Plasticpreneur machines also include customers who are developing new end products made from plastic scrap.