In the plastics industry Henion is an established line and respected name. Today, the Henion Dicing Products, LLC company is a blend of the old and the new. New owners, Thermal Fluid Systems, Inc., share the vision of the company namesake who designed the original one-piece helical cutterhead as well as the forerunner of the current dicing machinery. Clem Henion came out of retirement to add his 40+ years of experience to the company that while it had the technology needed revitalized management. Thermal Fluid Systems, Inc. principals, Charles Summers and Clive Stone knew Clem and discussed what appeared to be a business opportunity similar to the startup of their existing process heating equipment business now in its tenth year.

Before investing time, energy and money into the dicing business, a number of questions needed answering. The key question: was there potential for growth in the dicer business and to what extent?

The answers came back positive. The first and perhaps the most irrefutable reason is that there is a good and growing market for dicers. Many of the major compounders, both commercial and captive, rely on dicing as the primary, and to some the only way, to achieve uniform size pellets economically and efficiently. This customer base still requires technical support, replacement parts and cutterheads, and there does not appear to be a long-term commitment by other companies to this market. It is acknowledged that PVC is historically a significant user of dicers, but many other resin compounders are also relying on dicer technology. This includes companies producing ABS, nylon, TPE, TPU, rubber and highly filled compounds. Masterbatch houses also look to dicing as preferable to other available size reduction technologies such as underwater, hotface, and strand pelletizing.

Within the last ten years Dicing has also been moving into the reclaim or recycling segment of the plastics industry. Successful results have been obtained with sheets or webs of PET-G virgin sheet, filled polypropylene, surylan, and highly filled materials. In the non plastics area dicers have processed such diverse products as cellulose, compressed peat moss sheet and wood and this is one of the greatest potentials for the future of dicing. This is especially true for dicing materials that degrade from heat build-up from granulating, or when the process requires consistent size and shape recycled stock such as cubes or OctaPellets.

Henion was a good investment for Thermal Fluid Systems, Inc. as it is the ONLY company that has the technology and equipment that can manufacture a precision helical one piece cutter and has been manufacturing and servicing dicing machinery since 1962. Based on this foundation, with upgrades in the equipment and a new, modern facility combined with Clem Henion’s vast experience Henion Dicing Products can offer a broad line of dicers and auxiliary equipment which are key components for growth. From our perspective, " the one stop resource is what makes Henion unique and a great asset to its customers".

Henion’s new manufacturing facility houses the cutterhead, bedknife and machine building operation. Henion cutters (rotors) are ground to very tight and specific tolerances, with special attention to tooth to tooth dimensions. Customers send cutterheads back to Henion for precision resharpening and in some cases repair of the teeth. Occasionally foreign metal objects will destroy a number of teeth, which when repaired save the cutter from the scrap heap. The attention to sharpening detail means that the customer can get unmatched life out of Henion cutters.

The move from New Jersey to the new 14,000+ sq ft building near Atlanta required not only moving the machinery, but also key machine operators, dicer manufacturing and technical support personnel. Many of the Henion team have been with the company for decades.

Plans are on board for a further expansion of capabilities and services both in Kennesaw and globally. The market for dicers has not diminished but with a solid product line that is field proven and with new technology, controls and communications, Henion can serve customers regardless of geography.

Henion Dicing Products LLC, manufacturer new Henion 9 & 18 dicers; rebuilds and provides replacement parts for both Henion and Bolton dicers. Henion precision cutterheads and cutterhead sharpening and repair is provided for Henion and Bolton style dicers