Ino USA opens Buffalo facility
Ino Industrial Belting Co. Ltd., based in Shanghai for more than 30 years, opened an Ino USA facility in Buffalo, New York, on Jan. 1.
With four employees and about 10,000 square feet, Ino's fabrication shop imports rubber slabs from Shanghai where the company's belt manufacturing occurs. The facility houses multiple presses in Buffalo that can fabricate v-guides, sidewall and lacing
Ino plans to bring manufacturing to Buffalo, where it promises to "walk customers throughout the whole process ... without the corporate B.S."
"Right now, we bring over all of the slabs from China and then we have a full fabrication facility in Buffalo, so we can supply any finished belt that is needed to the customer, or we can sell full slab or partial slabs to customers who have their own belting shops," said Robert Hochberg, revenue and administration manager for Ino USA.
Ino has invested between $1.5 million and $2 million into the leased Buffalo building.
Ino USA focuses primarily on the food processing and logistics markets, but also supplies belting to the tobacco, industrial, recycling and aluminum extrusion spaces.
Products include lightweight, monolithic (or homogeneous), timing and woven and fabric belts. The company also manufactures customized belts.
Its lightweight belts include polyurethane, PVC, oil- and fat-resistant PVC, polyolefin (for tobacco processing, specifically) and fabric conveyor belts. Fabric and woven belts typically are used in conjunction with high-temperature materials, such as lines for aluminum extrusion that might feature Kevlar or Nomex.
"The vision is to achieve the highest standards in food safety while lowering the industry's impact on the environment," Ino states on its website. "The product materials contain no plasticizers and do not contaminate the goods during transport. The cut- and abrasion-resistant characteristics also make REOclean applicable to many different industrial sectors other than food processing."
Worldwide, Ino maintains more than 540,000 square feet of manufacturing space, with an additional 1 million square feet planned across its global facilities this year alone, the company said.
"The mission of Ino USA is to offer customers the fastest response time and best possible prices by giving them the support of a large manufacturer, with no corporate B.S.," the company said. "Their vision is to make belting commerce easy so distributors can focus on what they do best: supporting their local industry."
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY MAGAZINE
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