Flexicon Corporation (Australia) Pty Limited has opened a new Australian manufacturing facility, it was announced by Simon Hall, applications engineering manager.

The plant will engineer and manufacture Flexicon bulk handling equipment, maintain a full range of spares in stock and provide factory-direct field service.

"Local manufacturing will enable Flexicon to standardise designs and finishes that meet Australian requirements for industrial, food, dairy and pharmaceutical applications, while lowering production costs and allowing rapid deliveries," he says.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Flexicon Corporation of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, the Australian

operation will produce Flexicon's full range of equipment including flexible screw conveyors, pneumatic conveying systems, bulk bag unloaders, bulk bag fillers, manual dumping stations, weigh batching systems, and custom-engineered, plant-wide systems integrated with new and existing processes.

According to Simon, the engineering staff at the new facility has extensive experience designing Flexicon equipment for the Australian market, and can call upon Flexicon's 25,000 worldwide installations when solving specific bulk handling problems. "What sets us apart," he points out, "is that we have the resources of a global organisation and the experience gained from more than 30 years of operation."

Other Flexicon manufacturing facilities, in addition to the USA headquarters, are located in Kent, England, and Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

He explains that the subsidiary will build on Flexicon's 10 years of experience in the Australian market by enlarging and maintaining its client base throughout Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and the South Pacific Rim, managing projects ranging from stand-alone equipment to custom-engineered, turnkey systems including commissioning, training and handover. "The Flexicon brand is extremely well established here, and we expect to increase market share rapidly through the advantages of local manufacturing," he said.