Hills, Inc. is a thirty five year old company devoted to the design, development, and manufacture of machinery and technology for the synthetic fiber industry. This profile is intended to briefly introduce new customers to our programs and facilities. We certainly welcome the opportunity to discuss your fiber technology and equipment needs.

Research and Development Fiber Spinning

Hills routinely participates with customers in the development of new fiber technologies. These development programs are usually conducted in our labs with our in-house research and pilot machinery. This equipment is set-up for production of UOY, POY, FOY, BCF, spunbond, and meltblown products. Our labs have played a major role in the development of an exceptional number of new polymers, processes, and fiber products recently introduced in the fiber markets.

Pilot Scale Spinning Equipment

The research equipment routinely supplied by Hills includes self-standing machines capable of producing melt spun, wet spun, or spunbond fibers. Most melt-spinnable polymers have been handled. In wet spinning, we particularly specialize in equipment used to produce hollow fiber membranes. Our research and pilot machines for producing bicomponent fibers are currently in great demand. Take-ups are available for winding UOY, POY, FDY, spunbond, meltblown, staple, and BCF. Our equipment is often designed for flexible processes and it is generally customized for the Customer’s unique requirements. Typical users of these machines are fiber producers, polymer suppliers, research facilities and universities. Uses included testing and development of processes and products for new fibers, polymers, color concentrates, fiber finishes, etc.

Custom Designed Commercial Machinery

The majority of Hills’ business is generated from the design and manufacture of custom production machinery developed to fulfill a Customer’s specific fiber requirements. Examples our past custom machinery projects include:

Large scale bicomponent staple spinning machines for producing over 500 lbs/hr/pack with 16 packs, godets, and tow canner;

Large scale spunbond spinning systems with quench and draw jet aspirator speeds up to 7000 m/m.

Bicomponent spinning systems to produce virtually any polymer arrangement at rates over 350 lb/hr/pack;

Contactless winders for take-up of carbon fiber precursors;

Spinning machine components including spin packs, polymer filters, meter pump drives, electrical control cabinets, electrical and Dowtherm heated polymer transfer lines, etc;

Modification of existing plants to update machines or to convert to different processes; especially multicomponent polyment systems.

All our machines are available with either discrete or central computerized controls. Most Hills machines recently purchased have used Wonderware ® developed specifically for fiber applications

Bi-Component Fiber Technology

In the area of bicomponent fibers and equipment, Hills has developed a highly advanced technology which provides several advantages including high filament densities, unlimited potential for varying polymer distribution within the fibers, and low cost. Knowledgeable people in bicomponents all agree that Hills is the world leader in the rapidly growing bicomponent fiber field. This technology has resulted in sales of over 100 pilot and commercial machines. One of our more recent projects has been the delivery of a tri-component machine.

Facilities

Hills occupies five buildings with over 35,000 square feet of office, shop, and laboratory space located on eight acres of land in West Melbourne, Florida. A total of over eighty employees provide management, technical, sales, accounting, and shop services to the company.

All of our mechanical, electrical, and process engineering is done in-house by skilled engineers and draftsmen. Computer aided technology and appropriate testing facilities are used to assist in the development of new designs and processes.

Hills owns a full capability CNC machine shop specializing in high precision machine parts. This capability, combined with our manual equipment for secondary operations, EDM machinery for specialized applications, surface grinding for finishing, as well as our relationships with local suppliers on the high tech Space Coast of Florida, have made Hills exceptionally capable of producing the precision components required for the most advanced fiber production machinery.

Experienced assembly/fabrication technicians work directly with the Company’s Shop Management and Project Engineers to provide welding, assembly, painting, electrical wiring, and installation services. Essentially all of the company’s electrical panels are designed and built in-house. Construction to most international codes is available.

A separate group of technicians service our spare parts and gaskets operations. Most spare parts and gaskets are made in-house for quick response.

Hills, Inc. is a truly international organization with projects, sales agencies representation, and service center facilities in the Americas, Europe and Asia.