Located in the North Carolina mountains, Pioneer Eclipse has also achieved king-of-the-hill position in the institutional and commercial floor cleaning field.  The Sparta, N.C. company pioneered the development of high-speed floor cleaning technology, creating a full line of cleaning machines and specially formulated chemicals.   The vertically integrated company manufactures machines in half its plant, and blends and packages floor finishes and cleaning chemicals in the other half.  It even blowmolds its own containers, recently adding a second Uniloy Milacron blowmolding machine to expand its production capabilities and strengthen its manufacturing independence.

      According to David Wooten, chemical manufacturing manager, the new Uniloy UMS 16.D shuttle blowmolding machine provided the best fit to the company’s diverse requirements:

      •Production back-up on proprietary 10-liter containers with the least incursion on limited plant floor space.

      •Interchange of molds from an existing, older Uniloy machine.

      •Growth capability and application flexibility for smaller containers.   

      The company has been blowmolding its primary containers, the square 10-liter (2.64 gallon) handled jugs, for 12 years on a Uniloy Liberty IS4500 in-line shuttle machine. 

      “We originally contracted out the blowmolding of containers, but shipping air was inefficient and costly,” says Wooten.  There were also quality problems, “lots of leakers,” with contract blowmolding of Pioneer’s unique jug design, he adds.  

      Those factors led the company to purchase the Liberty machine to blowmold its proprietary 10-liter chemical containers.  The stacking design, used for 85%-90% of all chemical products, has a recessed ...

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