MAPP’s Board of Directors encourages plastics processors to utilize the knowledge contained within the MAPP network. To familiarize readers with the Board, each member will be profiled by Plastics Business ENews. This month, get to know John Passanisi, president of PRD, Inc.
John Passanisi, President, PRD, Inc., Springville, IN
MAPP Member Since: 1997
# of Employees: 155
# of Presses: 51
Industries served? Automotive, Electrical, Noise Control and Safety; LED Lighting for Cars and Industrial Applications
How did plastics become your career?
In college, I started off as a math major at Lowell Tech (now University of Massachusetts at Lowell). At the end of my freshman year, each of engineering colleges held open houses, and I attended the plastics engineering event. I fell in love with the idea of a program that had both the engineering education and the hands-on learning that Lowell Tech offered. I came to lead PRD in 1983 when former owner Ansel Deckard approached me – one of the company’s customers – about finding a president for him. I volunteered and said, “How about me?” At that time, PRD had four presses and 12 employees. After 31 years, the company has grown to 51 presses and 155people.
Describe PRD, Inc.
We are a custom injection molder that primarily does automotive work and, as a subset of that, we do a lot of automotive lighting, fuel handling components, door latches and locks. We do some decorating with pad printing and hot stamping, and we offer assembly work – everything from hand assembly to fully automated assembly with a robot on every press.
In what areas are you willing to share your experiences with other processors?
Although I can offer insights into automotive, whether it’s sales or engineering, I also could answer questions on automation. We have 55 presses and each one has a robot, but PRD also has other automated assembly areas that are high-speed and high-tech. We had a customer who was willing to give us a large job that consisted of six injection-molded parts and one purchased component, but to get the job we had to figure out how to automate the assembly. We worked both internally and externally with experts to come up with a machine that assembles the entire component. After assembly, the system does 100 percent error-proofing on the part through the use of cameras that take a picture of the finished part and compare it to a standard. We have recently completed 8,000,000 cycles on that equipment.
Contact John Passanissi at 812.279.8885 or email [email protected].
Previous Profiles
MAPP Board Members
Former Board Members
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