Composite Creativity - Iowa farmer's company builds equipment materials

摘要

Life provides plenty of teachable moments, but not all of them are pleasant. In 1993, a back injury forced Iowa farmer Terry Kieffer to slow down. At the time, he was raising 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans and running a farrow-to-finish hog operation. Terry decided to study plastics and plastic-making processes instead. He purchased an Osborn thermoforming machine and set it up in a shed on his farm. Twenty years later his company, Plastics Unlimited, makes plastic thermoformed parts, cast urethane products and more for various equipment manufacturers in agriculture and other industries. John Deere is currently their biggest customer - purchasing aftermarket parts for tractor cabs. The company's other agriculture customers include Claas, Hagie, Bobcat, Gehl, Landoll and Kinze.