Hardcoat Technologies, LLC marks six-year milestone with the addition of a Zeres electric molding machine.

Knoxville, TN, (April 30, 2020) – Hardcoat Technologies, LLC, a Tier 2 supplier of automotive lighting and exterior trim, has grown its injection molding capacity with the addition of a 405-ton Zhafir Zeres electric injection molding machine. The ZE 3600/1400 was delivered to their Knoxville, Tennessee location on April 21. It is the fifth molding machine they have purchased from Absolute Haitian.

Hardcoat Technologies specializes in injection molding clear lenses for polycarbonate head lamps, driving lamps and fog lamps, which are thermal hardcoated for weatherability and scratch resistance. Hardcoat Technologies also has the capability for applying an anti-fog coating to prevent interior condensation. Customers include SL Tennessee, Truck-Lite and Rebo Lighting and Electronics. The company’s products end up in vehicles such as the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Malibu and the Ford F-150.

Hardcoat Technologies has grown substantially according to Nick Steffens, CEO and President, who founded the company in March 2014. From 2017 to 2018, the company grew 300 percent and from 2018 to 2019, it had 35 percent growth. “We needed additional capacity as we’re starting up programs for Hicks Plastics/Myotech later in 2020,” he said.

The new ZE 3600 is the company’s second electric machine and will be put to work molding polycarbonate lenses. The company purchased its first electric machine, a 506-ton ZE4500, to produce acrylic light pipes for LED lighting in high-end vehicles. Previously, Hardcoat Technologies purchase three servo-hydraulic machines from Absolute Haitian – MA 3200 (360 U.S. tons), MA 5300 (596 U.S. tons) and MA 6000 (674 U.S. tons). “I’ve processed polycarbonate for 23 years now. We can run it in these standard machines with general purpose screws resulting in scrap rates under 2 percent. I’ve had people tell me we couldn’t make high cosmetic parts in these machines but with the robust processes we set up, we are able to do it,” said Steffens.

The company’s Knoxville location positions them to work with automotive suppliers in the south. “With Tier 1 suppliers to Toyota in Kentucky, Nissan in Tennessee and BMW in South Carolina, we are well-situated to continue our growth,” said Steffens. “We expect automotive to lag in 2020 due to shutdowns and program delays, but we still anticipate 10 to 15 percent growth this year.

Automotive is a hard market to break into but Steffens had relationships built from 17-plus years of commercial development responsibility for Cooper-Standard and USi before he started Hardcoat Technologies. “What we bring is experience and technical expertise. We manufacture all our own hardcoating equipment and tooling in-house. We purchased a 3D printer for prototyping in 2018. Instead of 2 to 6 weeks, we can have prototyping completed in hours. We are driven by making parts quickly and providing value to our customers.”

Absolute Haitian, based in Worcester, Massachusetts, is the exclusive sales and service partner in the U.S. and Canada for Haitian International based in Ningbo, China.  Ningbo Haitian Machinery Co., Ltd. is the world’s largest supplier of plastics injection molding machinery, shipping more than 32,000 machines in 2019. Haitian products are sold in more than 130 countries with machine sizes ranging from 44 to 7,425 U.S. tons of clamp force. More information is available by visiting the Absolute Haitian website at www.absolutehaitian.com  

CONTACT:

Patrice Aylward, Communications Consultant, +1 216/618-3174 or paylward@absolutehaitian.com
Nick Steffens, CEO and President, +1 865-389-2040 or nsteffens@hardcoat-tech.com