Bell strives for extrusion solutions

More than 10 years ago, engineer Brandon Bell was startled to realize at a trade show that he was younger than a majority of people in attendance. In his journey from working at a plastics plant run by his father, Rick Bell, as an errand boy, to co-owner of extrusion equipment maker Automated Manufacturing Systems (AMS), not much has changed. At NPE, during a chat with Karen Hanna, senior staff reporter for Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing, Bell talked fast cars and surfing, and demonstrated a cooling table he made called the GenFlow, using red dye to show how the technology optimally distributes water.  

How did you get into plastics? 

Bell: My father, Rick Bell, worked for Killion Extruders, which was then purchased by Davis-Standard. My father was one of their electrical engineers. Rick was hand-selected to start up WestMed, which  operated out of both Tucson and Nogales, Mexico. It made flexible PVC tubing. I would follow [my father] and the owner of the company across the border, and I'd be pushing pallet jacks with gaylords of plastic pellets around the factory, at [around] the age of 9. I’d follow them into the factories and push a broom and learn what plastics was. If you’re a 9-year-old in a big factory, you felt like you wer playing a little bit, but I was exposed to manufacturing at a young age. 

How long did your family work in Mexico? 

Bell: For a few years. And then AMS was founded in 1993 in Florida, in our garage. I was always around the shop, I learned how to do different things, more machinery related, not process related. I started cutting metal, turning wrenches. I got a degree in electromechanical engineering from University of New Hampshire. 

What was your father’s goal in establishing the company?  

Bell: At the time, it was when AC motor technology was really going mainstream. So, he was rebuilding extruders, converting them from DC motor controls. From there, our product line kind of evolved. People stopped asking for rebuilding, and we just said, “Hey, we’ll design it from scratch.” We primarily sell new equipment now. Everything in our booth right now, these are all part of our standard offerings — pullers, cutters, extruders, water baths.  

How did you get involved with AMS?  

Bell: [My father] is still active. We work together on a daily basis in West Palm Beach. I went to some trade shows when I was in college. I was helping him with some marketing and whatnot. I actually was walking around the trade shows, and I didn’t see anybody my age; I was still in college. I saw a lot of older gentlemen that looked pretty happy and well-off, and I said, “Where are the young guys on the machinery side?” and they said, “You don’t exist.” So, I thought this would be a good place to be. My role has been full-time since 2002. 

What are some of the technologies you’ve developed in-house? 

Bell: We have two machinery patents [on the GenFlow and AMS Air Vac vacuum sizing tank]. For the [GenFlow] over there, it’s been designed to try to make life for the medical extrusion engineers easier. In the R&D side of things, they’re always looking for stability, precision, and they need a flexible machine for quick setups. They’re running a lot of really challenging polymers. We try to cater to those needs by making the thermal properties of the machine as stable as possible, and controlling the water in a manner that will help them versus either hurting them or being a variable; we’re very consistent on the machine. 

Is the table for R&D, or for functional use?  

Bell: Definitely for function. If you’re doing short-run extrusions, and you have a high-level extrusion tech running it, they’ll appreciate it. We do have a version that has less adjustability for the production floor, because when things are in a production setting, you don’t want unlimited adjustability. Everybody likes to run things their own way — you give somebody a knob, they’re going to turn it. 

What led to the development of the tank?  

Bell: What inspired the idea behind this is a traditional cooling tank or vacuum tank is bent out of sheet metal and has a rectangular square cross section. Water is introduced into that tank with a ball valve and a half-inch or three-quarter-inch merchant coupling, and it just goes into that space and swirls around a little bit and eventually exits. On this machine, we actually introduce the water axially in line with the extrusion so, that way, the forces of the water aren’t pushing from side to side. It keeps the thermal characteristics of the machine very consistent. It’s more repeatable and more stable. 

When you drop a few drops of food coloring in, you can really see what’s happening. If you did the same test in older machines, it would act very differently, a lot more turbulent. You’d probably find that the dye goes to one part of the tank, and just maybe sits and collects. That’s not ideal. 

When did you first patent the GenFlow? 

Bell: Back in I think 2012 or 2013. We’ve been improving it ever since. We offer it in different lengths. Different companies do have different needs there. This one goes up to 4 feet. The longest we’ve made it so far is 5 feet. Three, 4 and 5 feet are the popular sizes. 

How many machines do you regularly ship? 

Bell: In revenue, we’re right around 3 million [dollars], give or take a little depending on the year. As far as the number of machines, it is a lot. When we go back to the shop this week, we’ve got a full 1-inch medical line, brand-new system for a leading company. I’ve got a couple of smaller machines going to another company that’s doing an industrial application with probably seven or eight other [purchase orders] in-house. I’m shipping some cutters for somebody that does a more industrial application, it really is very broad.  

We’re definitely busy. 

Is there a particular market AMS is interested in?  

Bell: We’re pretty diverse. It fluctuates a little. For example, back when 3D printing was going mainstream, from like, 2012 to 2015, we were really busy with a lot of those types of customers. But it’s pretty spread out. You look around NPE right now, you see a lot of different industries.  

What sets AMS apart from other, bigger OEMS? 

Bell: It really comes down to the right fit. We bring a lot of added value when you buy our machines. We are in our lab, testing polymers.  

Because we’re a smaller company, when somebody has invented a new polymer, sometimes they feel more comfortable coming to us and working with us in our lab versus the larger companies that have a lot more eyes on it. 

Believe it or not, we still have people that haven’t heard about us. People want their machine supplier to acknowledge that, even [if] it’s a standard puller or cutter that they need, little details need to be specific to them. That’s something we pride ourself on. Because we are a smaller company, we hope to give the customer that flexibility. 

Tinkering is something that AMS is known for. We work with a lot of smaller companies. And we’ve done some custom projects that require innovation, that you’ve got to spend some time playing and designing your machinery, that way we can produce the right result for the customer. 

If a customer buys a machine from us and [has] a processing problem, we will try to assist them as best as possible. Depending on the company that’s buying our machines, they may appreciate our design. Other equipment suppliers do a wonderful job, but maybe their guarding is too big or the machine doesn’t have the right touch screen, or what have you. There may be some things that don’t fit their factory. We still produce extruders in a similar fashion to Killion from the ’80s, and people appreciate that design. It’s something operators are comfortable with. 

Do some people still prefer more-traditional interfaces? 

Bell: You know, keeping tabs of your software and your full PLC systems definitely requires hiring several full-time programmers, and you’re going to have to update it, you’re going to have software bugs, just like Apple does on [its] phone. It’s about the right balance and what your customer needs. Not every customer needs that; some customers still appreciate discrete push buttons.  

What’s in the future? Could machines run themselves? 

Bell: I see the more general cookie-cutter processes and applications getting even more streamlined. Some of those everyday products, I see AI benefiting there, I see engineers using AI to make it easier. But on the other side of things, the innovation, the new biopolymers, the stuff that’s being invented, you can’t just throw AI and automation at that. It’s still a bit of an art as anyone in the industry knows. So, for better or worse, you’re going to try to streamline and remove human error from the standard stuff. That gives you an edge when you’re having to solve a problem on the floor. If you’re able to problem-solve in extrusion, you’re going to stay very busy, you’re going to continue to do cutting-edge R&D. I see it getting easier, hopefully for our factory, so we can keep [manufacturing] in the U.S. 

Are R&D and advanced materials an important focus for AMS? 

Bell: [My father] has an incredible amount of process knowledge he’s picked up since the ’80s, starting at Killion. I’ve certainly picked up my fair share, as well. 

There’s been a push for more earth-friendly polymers, things that are more easily recyclable or biodegradable. So that’s been our focus for the last couple of years. People come to us with their polymer [and say], “Hey, let’s make a sheet out of this and see how it acts.” They’ve invented a new polymer, and they want to see what happens when it gets put into an extruder.  

We help them generate samples because they don’t own the extrusion machinery.  

What do you see as the prospects for addressing those challenges?  

Bell: You know, when I go and look at the bottle cap machine over at Sumitomo [at NPE], it’s mind-blowing, it’s opening and closing the mold as fast as you can clap your hands, bottle caps are just raining nonstop. It’s definitely something we’ve got to address. But from my point of view, I’m not on the chemistry side, so I don’t know how strong that space is. They’re trying. I’d like to see it [be] successful. Everybody’s trying to work on it. 

Are there other challenges in the industry that AMS is hoping to address in some way? 

Bell: I'd say it’s probably more collaboration. This was a topic this week with some people here. But possibly more collaboration with the smaller companies, even amongst machine builders. If you’re a smaller company, there are much bigger companies out there that you’re battling as well, so pick and choose your battles and figure out how you can work with someone and maybe you can both come out winning. 

What do you enjoy most about working for AMS? 

Bell: It’s the challenge. I guess if you’re just a mechanically oriented person, building machinery is pretty cool. There’s electrical, there’s mechanical, now, obviously, there’s software. But it’s that reward of when you get it right and when other people are using it, it’s just really cool to see. 

How is your company working to develop younger talent? 

Bell: We’ve had a few [interns]. Over there [gesturing toward another man in the AMS booth], we have Stephen, one of our younger engineers, he’s actually an intern. He’s been with us for about a year. He has one more year left. I hope to inspire him. That’s why we brought him here at NPE; it’s a privilege to come to this show for anyone.  

It’s especially important to me because we get to introduce people to the space, which is good. We take the time to show them how the process works, get their hands on equipment. You don’t get to do that at every college these days. And then in return, these green engineers that may have limited experience doing designs, are working to support our continuous improvement in documentation, which includes better operator manuals, electrical schematics and engineering packages.  

What would you tell younger people about a career in plastics? 

Bell: A career in plastics, I think, can be extremely rewarding. Some of my peers have taken a different route than myself, more of the sales side. But no matter which path you take, the industry needs talent. It’s a place where, if you aren’t afraid of working hard, you can have a wonderful career. You may have some friends doing something else that maybe have an easier job, maybe they’re getting paid a little bit more. But you’ll have something that’ll last a lifetime; you’ll have a skill set that’s very unique.  

What would you say to companies struggling to find new workers? 

Bell: On the manufacturing side, we are a global marketplace. In other countries where labor costs are much lower, where environmental restrictions and those other variables are more lenient, the U.S. especially is [at] a disadvantage. We need to keep medical, aerospace, the real innovative stuff, we’ve got to keep that in the U.S. 

What do you like to do outside of work? 

Bell: I live in West Palm Beach. I enjoy surfing when I can. We get really beautiful waves after a hurricane’s on the way out. Some of the best waves are in Florida, believe it or not. My girlfriend is Portuguese, and we go to Portugal once a year, so I try to surf there, if I can. 

I enjoy Porsche cars. My track car is a modified 2014 Boxster S. My daily driver is a 2018 Macan GTS, which I also take to the track occasionally. If you enjoy driving, they are a fantastic duo.    

How fast have you driven the car?  

Bell: 150 or so at Daytona on the racetrack — Daytona Speedway — with the top down the whole time. 

It’s a really neat way to meet people. There’s a lot more people into Porsche vehicles than you’d expect in the plastics industry.  

What would you like your legacy to be?  

Bell: When you see the repeat customers coming in, that’s the best compliment, because I want to add value to their factory, to their lives. It’s really the best compliment, because I do like to build machinery. I like to invent and create things. I really want to go out of my way to make every customer I can happy. That isn’t always the case, but that’s how I approach every situation.