Don't miss your FREE registration for NPE2024!
MAKE EVERY PELLET COUNT

About

Who We Are and Who We Help

Conair, as part of Piovan Group, is the leading supplier of auxiliary equipment, solutions and installed systems for plastics processors, supplying application-guaranteed equipment and quick and competent service to keep plants running efficiently and profitably. We have helped plant managers and engineers across various industries such as packaging, automotive, medical device, electronics, beauty & household and many others.

Auxiliary Equipment

We supply more than 450 different products, including resin drying systems, blenders, feeders and material conveying systems, temperature control units, and granulators. Extrusion solutions include gravimetric control systems, film and sheet scrap-reclaim systems and downstream equipment for tubing, pipe and profile extrusion.

Conair Product Lines

Installed Systems

Our work doesn’t stop with equipment and parts. Conair’s robust engineering and project management teams also take on complex equipment integration projects that managers don’t have the bandwidth to solve.

The results? Expertly designed equipment and turnkey systems that reduce risk and provide an all-around smarter operation.

As a leader in plastics process integration, Conair has experience installing complete manufacturing systems that help plastics processors manage their valuable raw materials, handle their critical manufactured parts, and improve their process yield for virtually every plastic processing method:

Video Overview: Learn more about working with Conair

Plastics Processing Challenges We Solve

  • Facing an upcoming expansion, greenfield facility or new production line?
    You need equipment that’s reliable, will fit in with your current infrastructure and perform exactly as designed.
  • Tasked with streamlining operations to boost profitability?
    You may face a mix of controls that waste operator time or a recent spike in business that’s straining production capacity. Essentially, something needs to change, as the way you’re operating is no longer viable.
  • Don’t have enough internal bandwidth or expertise to tackle big equipment projects?
    Big projects, such as integrating controls or vetting new technology to solve long-standing problems, require a lot of resources. This is especially an issue if the project is time-sensitive, like a soon-to-open greenfield facility.
  • Unscheduled equipment downtime getting in the way of efficiency?
    Unreliable equipment isn’t an option. It prevents you from achieving efficiency, profitability and business growth. Every piece needs to work, guaranteed.
  • Downtime costing you big money?
    Hundreds of thousands of dollars are on the line for every minute down — you don’t have time to wait for service responses or parts delivery.
  • Short on operators to run equipment?
    On the production floor, you don’t have the operators needed to run equipment (and have a hard time even filling those seats). This means frequent training, employee churn and risked efficiency.

How We Solve Plastics Processing Challenges

  • Equipment that stands the test of time….
    Conair offers over 450 different auxiliary equipment products for plastics processing that help ensure quality plastic products before, during, and after the primary processing operations. We still supply parts for equipment that has been running for over 50 years.
  • …and is backed by a performance guarantee.
    In addition to standing behind equipment warranties, we guarantee performance in your specific application. This means equipment will reliably meet or exceed your desired output and throughput— and if something goes wrong, we’ll conduct a root cause analysis and provide training, equipment repairs or modifications until it’s right.
  • Warp-speed shipping when you need parts.
    With an average inventory of $18+ million and over 90% of all part orders shipped the same day, you can count on Conair to get the components you need to return to full operation.
  • Customized equipment training for your operators.
    Routine employee training can dramatically improve performance, safety, profitability and uptime. We take that off your plate and put it in the hands of auxiliary equipment experts who know how to get the most performance and life based on experience in thousands of applications.
  • Streamlined controls for easier operation and greater efficiency.
    We help by providing the heavy lifting on the complex task of integrating equipment and installing uniform control systems across your facility. This common control hardware makes it easier to train operators, plus our SmartServices platform gives you the data to improve the intelligence (and profitability) of your operation.

Resin Selection Stations

Why We’re Different

  • Size and scale.
    You need a company that you can count on to provide equipment, service and support that helps reduce risk — today and in the future. We’ve been helping companies improve their operations since 1956 and today have over 500 people you can count on every single day.
  • On-call service for troubleshooting, 24/7/365.
    Expect an answer to your service call within 17 seconds of dialing (that’s how fast we’ve answered 94.6% of calls). And if you need a quote, 61.9% of the time we can provide it within 24 hours.
  • A “sheer army” of service techs, onsite within 24 hours.
    Our service team averages 14.7 years’ of experience and is larger than any other plastics auxiliary company — meaning you’re getting the best equipment support and knowledge available in the industry.
  • Problems get solved faster with one go-to supplier.
    The days of each equipment supplier pointing fingers at the other person when an issue comes up? Those are over with a Conair turnkey system.
  • Rely on us for engineering and equipment insights.
    Our engineering team has tackled facility LEED certification, fluctuating rates of product throughput, new tech recommendations — and can do the same for you. Receive guidance from our 16 senior engineers and 6 product development leaders, averaging 20+ years of experience.
  • Project management is off your plate — and in the hands of a 12-person team.
    Our PM team members average almost 15 years of experience and is larger than any other plastics auxiliary equipment provider. Free up your bandwidth and still count on a successfully designed system.

The Conair Customer Care Team in 2019

A History of Growth

Conair was founded in 1956 by small-town entrepreneur John Reib. He was one of the first in the plastics industry to recognize the need to automate the material-handling process and worked on ways to increase yields for injection molders and extruders everywhere.

The company was soon the dominant name in the auxiliary equipment market and remained that way when the company was bought by GWH Holdings Company in 1986. At that time Conair consisted of a plant and headquarters in Franklin, PA – where bulk systems, material handling and conditioning equipment, water equipment, and reclaim systems were manufactured – and the Jetro division in Bay City, MI, which manufactured pelletizers, granulators and robots.

In the late 1980s, The Conair Group acquired Martin, Inc., a robotics manufacturer, Gatto Machinery, a pipe and profile extrusion-equipment manufacturer, and Wor-Tex, which made granulators. The company also formed Conair Tempro to manufacture the heat transfer equipment. Over the next decade, Conair posted record sales volumes and grew over 350% to become the largest and fastest growing supplier of auxiliary equipment in the world.

Conair equipment in 1988 for injection molding system

During this time, Conair was also expanding globally by joining forces with Churchill, a manufacturer of liquid temperature-control units in the United Kingdom. Later, Churchill evolved into Conair Europe. To serve the Far East, Conair Pacific was formed in Singapore. Conair Mexicana was established to serve Mexico, Central America, and South America.

In 1997, all these separate divisions were at once merged into a single, powerful organization with corporate offices and technical center near Pittsburgh, PA. Manufacturing, service, parts, and post-sale support were consolidated into a 120,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility in Franklin, PA. In 2008, Conair acquired Michigan Plastics Machinery, a downstream extrusion equipment manufacturer and has since moved it to a 50,000-sq-ft plant in Pinconning, MI, which is dedicated solely to making extrusion products.

As more and more U.S. processors began looking beyond our own borders for new markets and Conair moved right along with them. In 2007, the Company formed a joint venture – Nu-Vu Conair Pvt. Ltd – to build equipment in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), India. The JV moved into a new 45,500-sq-ft plant this year. Also in 2008, Conair opened a factory in Shanghai, China. These off-shore manufacturing and service operations were not established for the purpose of cutting the cost of equipment imported to and sold in North America. Quite the contrary – all of the equipment sold here (and much of what is sold over-seas) is built in the USA. Conair’s activities in India and China are focused solely on serving customers who operate in those countries themselves.

In 2022, Conair – along with the rest of IPEG Inc – was acquired by Piovan Group, forming a workforce of more than 1,800 employees with 14 production facilities.

Choosing a Supplier

Choosing a supplier for your auxiliary equipment means finding a partner that can deliver what matters to you.

When comparing suppliers, you have to consider the uptime the equipment will deliver, the speed at which you can receive spare parts, and the quality and speed of service in the event you have equipment go down.

Conair Shipping Department

Conair is proud of its performance in all of these areas and is pleased to share our performance with you, our valued customer partners.  Conair not only performs to these metrics, but all of our equipment is backed by a 100% Performance Guarantee.  If the equipment in your proposal does not meet or exceed the performance stated, Conair will repair or replace the equipment at no charge, or give you a full refund.

What are your upcoming system projects?

And do you have an equipment partner that will prove their worth from start to finish? At Conair, we build and install systems optimized for your operation and your bottom line. Start a conversation with a Conair representative today.