July 23, 2021 – IPEX announced it is investing in a new “state-of-the-art injection molding” plant, to be built in Pineville, N.C.

At nearly 200,000 sf, the facility will embrace “Industry 4.0”, says IPEX, including artificial intelligence, and will increase the company’s ability to manufacture fittings for electrical, plumbing, industrial, and municipal applications.

The plant’s flexible automation capabilities will enable total automation for all facets of sorting, labelling, counting, packing and assembly.

In fact, IPEX says the custom-designed manufacturing facility will become the “technological flagship for the company’s operations and one of the most advanced plastics manufacturing facilities in the industry”.

The plant’s automation capabilities will eliminate the majority of manual repetitive processes and tasks, says the company, and the production floor will be “forklift-free” due to AI-guided vehicles. The plant will be fully climate-controlled, and employ energy-efficient lighting and high-efficiency machines.

The layout will also provide IPEX with space for product testing and prototyping.

“This new plant is an exciting endeavour for IPEX, our customers, employees, and the surrounding community,” said Alex Mestres, IPEX CEO. “This level of investment in new technologies, cloud connectivity and flexible automation will make this plant a learning showcase for the rest of our operations, and will allow us to better serve our customers with added flexibility, response time and innovative products.”

Construction is expected to be finalized in late 2022, with full operations expected to start in early 2023. Once the project is completed, the Pineville site—which includes an existing molding facility—will be home to nearly 100 injection molding machines, IPEX’s biggest molding complex.

An Aliaxis Company, IPEX provides a range of thermoplastic piping systems to North American customers in the municipal, irrigation, industrial, plumbing, mechanical, electrical and telecom sectors.