Situated in the cornfields between DeGraff and Jackson Center, there is a sophisticated 35,000 square-foot manufacturing operation.

If you were to drive by on County Road 35, you would almost miss it. PCPI Plastics may feel isolated – however they are a major player in medical, aerospace and telecommunications markets – serving customers all over the world.

They have aggressive expansion plans, and they have the capital and talent to make it happen. And it all started in a church in 1976.

Fifty years ago, Jim Kniska started the company in an abandoned church. With one machine and one customer, he launched PCPI to manufacture custom plastic products. The baptismal font came in handy as a process water cooler for the molding equipment!

Years later, Jim Kerg Jr. had one philosophy which helped grow the company and sustain its 50-year legacy – total customer satisfaction.

As the company celebrates this five-decade milestone, the Chronicle recently toured the facility and talked with company President Guilherme Bornholdt and Chief Operating Officer Brett Paulins.

Thermoplastics are made pliable when heated, formed, then cooled down and hardened. Injection molding is a process where heated plastic pellets are forced into a pre-formed mold, then hardened into shape…. READ MORE…