1. The story of Valley Extrusions isn’t quite a tale of rags to riches. But it is
an example of how a processor’s desire to diversify into an altogether
new business combined with a sharp focus on engineering, innovation,
quality control, fast changovers, and “doing business the way the cus-
tomer wants us to” can make something out of…well, nothing.
In this case the processor was C+K Plastics (candkplastics.com).
This Metuchen, N.J.-based thermoformer (see October 2014 cover
story) had a major customer—one that comprised more than half its
Valley Extrusions carves niche in tight-tolerance,
short-run tubing and profiles.
Valley Extrusions makes a wide
variety of tight-tolerance profiles
and tubes from many materials
and colors (top p. 41). It also builds
all dies and sizing tools in house.
Down in the Valley,
Profiles Grow
40 DECEMBER 2015Plastics Technology PTonline.com
By Jim Callari
Editorial Director
On-Site Valley Extrusions • Allentown, Pa.

2. (davis-standard.com), HPM North America (hpmmachinery.com),
and American Kuhne Corp. (americankuhne.com). The two 3-in.
twins are from Davis-Standard and Milacron (milacron.com).
Most of the downstream cooling, pulling, and cutting equipment
comes from Conair (conairgroup.com). At NPE2015, Valley brought
a new cutter from Novatec (novatec.com).
Valley Extrusions pumps out about 4 million lb/yr of highly
engineered, close-tolerance, customized tubing and profiles from
a wide range of materials, including PE, HIPS, PC, ABS, TPOs, rigid
and flexible PVC, and PPE (SABIC’s Noryl). Lines can be set up to run
single-layer or up to
three-layer coextrusions.
Current sales are at
$8 million/yr and have
been growing by 10%/
yr over the past four years. One end market that’s doing particularly
well for Valley is PC profiles for LED lighting fixtures. “That market
is getting retooled,” notes Marty Saucier, Valley’s GM and v.p. opera-
tions. “It’s considered a high-end application where tight tolerances
and cosmetics are crucial. Valley also supplies profiles used for label
holders for deli counters and commercial refrigerators, ID tags for
medical carts, kick plates, windshield clips for golf carts, and what
Carrier broadly terms a “hodge-podge of specialty niches.”
QUICK-CHANGE ARTIST
The way Carrier and Saucier see things, Valley Extrusions sits
neatly between two extremes. On one side are the mom-and-pop
profile extrusion companies that lack the technical know-how
to compete in tight-tolerance applications. On the other are
Dave Dillman, Valley’s CAD designer, works to fine-tune a
die design on the company’s SolidWorks AutoCAD system.
business—go belly-up in 2001, and as a result decided the time
was right to diversify. So it expanded not only its thermoforming
business, but got into profile extrusion as well, recalls Bob
Carrier, company owner and president.
This new venture started in January 2002 with the purchase
of one used profile extrusion line and the start-up of C+K’s sister
company, Valley Extrusions. The
next step, in 2004, was the acqui-
sition of Plastic Extruded Products
Company (PEPCO) in Hillside,
N.J. “We brought about four or
five older lines from PEPCO and
put them in Metuchen,” Carrier
recalls. “When we bought them
they had a pretty decent backlog,
so for a period of time we were
chugging it out and doing OK.”
But the PEPCO business was by
and large a commodity profile
and tubing operation, and Carrier
had another model in mind. “We
knew we didn’t want to make
hula-hoops,” is how he puts it.
In 2007, Carrier explored
moving the entire operation
out of New Jersey. Ultimately,
he opted to keep his thermo-
forming business in Metuchen
and relocate his extrusion business to Allentown, Pa.
Today, Valley Extrusions (valley-extrusions.com) operates
out of an 80,000 ft² plant in the Lehigh Valley area. It employs
50 people and runs 12 extrusion lines—including two twins
for powdered PVC—on a 24:5 basis. The equipment is a mix of
single-screw extruders from 2.5 to 3.5 in. from Davis-Standard
“We knew we didn’t want
to make hula-hoops.”
@plastechmag 41Plastics Technology
On-SiteValley Extrusions

3. If we get a call from a customer, or if they send us a part and
drawing and ask ‘Can you do this?’ they’ll generally have an
answer the same day. We are very quick on our feet.”
That same speed filters down to production. Run times at
Valley Extrusions range from 1 hour to a couple of weeks, so fast
changeovers can be the difference between making money or
not. Other than the two twins, all extrusion lines are designed
to move from one product to the next in a matter of hours. Some
extruders have screws mounted on brackets right at the machine
in cases where the changeover means running a material that
warrants a different screw. Material is delivered to Valley in
gaylords and brought by lift trucks directly to the line. Most of
Valley’s dryers are mounted on carts so they can be relocated
quickly from one machine to another.
In some instances, product is cut to length and packaged
right at the end of the extrusion line. Secondary operations
can sometimes be performed in-line as well. When that’s not
feasible, Valley has set up a fabrication room with equipment
that does drilling, notching, embossing, and inkjet printing. The
firm can also apply tape, magnetic
materials, or Velcro to the profile as
needed. Other off-line operations
include assembly, cutting, 5-axis CNC
machining, hot-stamping, kitting,
routing, silk screening, solvent
welding, and special packaging.
But things didn’t always run so
smoothly. Carrier says the decision
to bring in Saucier in 2008 was
crucial to improving Valley’s opera-
tion. Saucier, who had decades of
experience in a variety of technical
positions with other profile extru-
sion firms, immediately transferred
engineering and tool design from
Metuchen to Allentown. AutoCAD
software from Solidworks (solidworks.
com) capabilities was brought into
the Pennsylvania plant. As a result,
Chris Presler, dir. engineering, and
his team can take a customer drawing
or CAD file to design a tool, and then
have both dies and downstream sizing
equipment machined in the toolroom,
operations much
larger than Valley
Extrusions that try
to avoid short runs.
“Our ability to run
things no one else
wants to—either
because they are too
technically chal-
lenging in terms of
tolerances or not
large enough in
volume—set us
apart in the market,” says Saucier. “Our mission is to get the
product to the customer in the right quantity, at the right time,
and on spec…the first time.”
Adds Carrier, “We do business the way the customer wants.
We’ll even inventory products for customers if that is what they
want. There is no red tape or bureaucracy at Valley Extrusions.
“Our ability to run things no one else wants to—either because
they are too technically challenging in terms of tolerances or
not large enough in volume—sets us apart in the market.”
Valley Extrusions’ engineering capabilities were
enhanced when the company brought on board
Marty Saucier, G.M. and v.p. operations (left)
and Chris Presler, dir. engineering.
Valley’s QC lab is equipped
with a profile projector from
Deltronics, which allows
complex shapes to be
viewed under magnification
to ensure they meet spec.
42 DECEMBER 2015Plastics Technology PTonline.com
Valley Extrusions
On-Site

4. which is equipped with two wire EDM machines and a variety
of mills, lathes, and other metal-cutting equipment. “We can
take a part from concept to drawing to reality as well as any of
the big boys,” states Saucier. Bringing all this technology under
one roof, he explains, allows for a more interactive, collabora-
tive and consultative exchange between the processor and its
customers regarding part design, material selection, and a
variety of other matters.
Saucier immediately recognized the need to upgrade
the business management system. He and other key staff
collaborated to select a new system that gave Valley more
insight into the production process. Chief among these
was an ERP system purchased from CyFrame (cyframe.com).
This allowed the processor to collect real-time data from
each product run so that efficiency reports could be gener-
ated showing run times, scrap rates, and profitability on
each job. Saucier also implemented new quality-control
standards that require
operators to pull samples
by the hour and record
product dimensions.
Saucier also beefed
up Valley Extrusions’
maintenance and training
programs. This year, a
state grant enabled it to
bring in the Lehigh Valley
Manufacturers Resource
Center to conduct 5S (sort,
straighten, shine, standardize,
sustain) training for operators and other production personnel.
The plant has a QC lab that houses an optical compar-
ator—also called a profile projector—from Deltronic
(deltronic.com), which enables Valley to determine the
dimensional accuracy of profiles that might be too
complex to measure by hand.
The company has expansion in mind. Earlier this year, C+K
purchased Multiplastics Georgia Inc. of Suwanee. The business,
now called C&K Plastics Georgia, is a vacuum former that operates
out of a 20,000 ft² plant. Within two years, Carrier expects to
add profile extrusion capability there to form Valley Extrusions
Georgia. “Some of our larger customers in the commercial refrig-
eration business are located
in the area, and they like
to send out their trucks a
couple of times a week to
pick up parts and compo-
nents from their suppliers,”
Carrier notes. “While
we certainly have served
them well from Allentown,
having a plant nearby to
them will be another advan-
tage for us.”
Notes Carrier, “Our
niche is tight-tolerance
profiles. The design of
the part and the tooling can be very complex. But this business
model is simpler: Offer the customer a quality product at a good
price, then service the heck out of them.”
While vacuum sizing is used on many
profiles at Valley Extrusions, this clear
tube is spray cooled in a water bath.
Sometimes the job
isn’t done after the
profile is extruded, so
Valley Extrusions has a
dedicated fabrication
room where a wide range
of secondary operations
can be performed. Bob
Carrier, company president
and owner (center), Chris
Presler (left), and Marty
Saucier are pictured with
parts that have been
fabricated post-extrusion.
Run times at
Valley Extrusions
range from 1 hr
to a couple of
weeks, so fast
changeovers can
be the difference
between making
money or not.
Visit the Pipe, Profile, and Tubing Zone.
Learn more at PTonline.com
QUESTIONS ABOUT PROFILE EXTRUSION?
@plastechmag 43Plastics Technology
On-SiteValley Extrusions