April 1, 2016 Updated 4/1/2016
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Plastics News Report
IPEG Inc. IPEG Inc., the owner of auxiliary equipment makers Conair and Thermal Care, has purchased Pelletron Corp.
Cranberry Township, Pa. — IPEG Inc., the owner of auxiliary equipment makers Conair Group and Thermal Care Inc., has acquired Pelletron Corp., a supplier of pneumatic conveying equipment, dust removal systems and other products for plastics manufacturing.
IPEG announced the deal April 1. Terms would not be disclosed, company officials said.
Pelletron will operate as an independent subsidiary, at its existing location in Lancaster, Pa., IPEG said.
Pelletron was founded by Jerry Paulson in 1987, and has been operated since 2003 by Heinz Schneider and Paul Wagner — and the two men bought Pelletron in a deal announced in 2009. Schneider and Wagner will remain in their current rolls, Schneider as president and Wagner as vice president, under the IPEG ownership.
All other employees are expected to stay with the company, according to IPEG.
Conair also designs and sells conveying systems, but Chris Keller, IPEG’s CEO, said that Conair and Pelletron are not competitors.
“Whereas Conair offers vacuum-based systems that might convey hundreds or thousands of pounds per hour, Pelletron offers pressure-driven systems that are used by resin producers to handle thousands and tens of thousands of pounds per hour,” Keller said. “There is virtually no overlap.”
Pelletron has developed patented products such as pellecon3, a smart conveying process, the DeDuster that separates dust, fines and fluff from conveyed resin pellets, and the Pellbow, an elbow for material conveying piping that prevents pellet damage and equipment wear in high-velocity conveying and applications moving abrasive material.
“There is potential for Conair to source some equipment from Pelletron and vice versa,” Keller said. “However, our primary focus is to help Pelletron grow doing what they do best, engineering high-throughput pneumatic conveying systems.”
Schneider said IPEG ownership will give the company financial strength to handle large projects, that can run into the millions of dollars.
“Our growth has been limited by our size, not by our know-how or capability,” Schneider said.
Pelletron has a subsidiary in Bodnegg, Germany, Pelletroneurope GmbH, as well as distributors around the world.
