Powder King Celebrates 20th Anniversary

I, Jim Hummel, Owner of Powder King®, and a 32-year veteran in the plastics industry, embarked on a journey to become known as an industry leader for our line of Powder King pulverizing systems.

I have come a long way in my life and career because of a strong foundation. I developed a strong work ethic early; growing up on a farm, learning how to operate complicated equipment, fixing broken machinery, and building new machines to solve production challenges. I went to a vocational school during my last two years of high school to learn the art of welding and fabricating. I was selected by a welding company during my second year of welding school and accepted an apprenticeship at a local machine shop. There, I quickly learned how much I didn’t know about the true art of welding and fabricating. This was a new challenge in my life that was most certainly humbling. I knew to succeed and become proficient in the trade I had to listen to and learn from the senior fabricators. Welding is an art form that requires dedication and consistently presents new problems to solve.

After roughly 12 years of working as a fabricator, my skills grew, and I became a master welder-fabricator; proficient in all welding processes across various materials. We fabricated unique one-of-a-kind machinery for the oil and gas industry. One of the projects I worked on, at that time, was a type of pulverization machinery. Little did I know that would be my future.

From the oil and gas industry, I followed an opportunity to work for the Indy Car World Series. I became a fabricator and mechanic for PPG Industries, a sponsor of the Indy Car World Series. I was humbled once again by some of the world’s most sophisticated cars and transport trucks. I thrived and took on every challenge headstrong, all while gaining knowledge for my professional growth.

After several incredible years working in the Indy Car World Series, I eventually found my way to the plastics industry.

My first position in the industry was at Accurate Color and Accurate Compounding, a supplier of rotomolding compounds, owned by Bruce and Sherri Muller. Bruce generously shared his industry knowledge, and I quickly learned about the compounding process, pulverization, and all the equipment used in the industrial process. After spending several years with Accurate Color and making new connections in the industry, I was acquainted with Robert Sly, who invited me to join him in starting Reduction Engineering. The idea was to build a new line of pulverizing systems for the plastics industry. This was an opportunity I knew I could take on that my experience and history had prepared me for, and I have never looked back. Together we grew the company into something extraordinary.

However, I wanted more after this taste of success and realized there was more to my journey. I worked for a couple of years outside the machinery business when I was offered a position with Mold In Graphics, based in Clarkdale, AZ. Mold In Graphics is a supplier of specialty branding products to the plastics industry. There I was challenged to grow new facets of my professional career, and I continued developing lasting industry relationships. Even though I was successful in this position, I quickly realized my true passion was pulling me back to the pulverizing business.

My new journey began in 2003 when we made our announcement as a new supplier of pulverizing systems to the plastics industry — Powder King®. We were told we were crazy to try and compete with others during a slowdown in manufacturing and machinery sales. This was frustrating; however, we knew we had developed a system unlike any other in the industry, and I knew we could successfully compete in the industry and be seen as a serious contender. By surrounding myself with a great team of people and designing a far different system, we set off on what I call a journey of a lifetime.

With a very positive reputation in the plastics industry and some good friends, it was “GO” time. Our start would not have been possible if it weren’t for a good friend, a man I admired for his success in the rotational molding industry. This man was Gary Rozek of Centro Incorporated. Gary backed and supported our initial line of machines and encouraged his colleagues at Centro to choose Powder King® mills for a newly opened plant in Clearmont, NC. This initial start-up order was what launched Powder King®.

Powder King® is a family business with my wife Portia and youngest son Justin being a very integral part of the business, from accounting to manufacturing. The “Hummel” name is on every dollar and each piece of Powder King® equipment. I couldn’t do it without my family. We are dedicated to each other, the rest of our team, this business, and what we produce.

Our unique design is what sets us apart from others. Building on my many years of experience in operating, fabricating, and knowledge of polymers, I put all this experience together to create a pulverizing system far more advanced than other suppliers.

The Generation 1 platform design was developed drawing from years of past experiences in mechanical operation, PLC-controlled operating systems, safety, and other features previously not been offered in the industry. The new Powder King® system was very successful. However, we never wanted to be comfortable, so we kept improving the systems.

For our Generation 2 platform, we moved away from the traditional belt driven mill operation to a new direct drive system with a motor directly coupled to the milling chamber. This was a revolutionary design that had never been done and was met with a lot of criticism from our competitors, however, we were confident with this concept and have never looked back.

Our Generation 3 platform underwent a complete redesign and upgrade. We included a new mill housing design, disk mounting features, upgraded aerodynamic features for better airflow and cooling within the mill chamber, and added many more features to the pulverizing system.

Power King® is now on our Generation 4 platform. For this design, we moved away from traditional PLC components and invested significantly to develop our own proprietary embedded control operating system we call the EC200. This was a truly revolutionary advancement in pulverizer operation. Our controller provides a highly sophisticated operating system with far more variable control and detailed run data on the pulverizing process than any other company worldwide. Our system has an operation graph of all functions and an operator accountability screen that logs every keypunch to track the operator’s actions on the touchscreen control visually. The machine can be operated remotely with a cell phone, tablet, or desktop computer. The system can even be remotely accessed and monitored from Powder King® offices for troubleshooting and operator assistance.

Powder King’s® 20,000 square foot headquarters in Anthem, Arizona, hosts nine CNC disk sharpening machines, and fabricating equipment to manufacture and service our customers with 24-hour operation, fabricating, and assembly of all Powder King® models of our pulverizing systems. Powder King® is a worldwide supplier of our pulverizing systems with machines throughout the world milling various types of resins and operating in many different types of processing companies to efficiently pulverize their plastics to meet world-class specifications.

We look forward to the future at Powder King® and the opportunity to be your partner for world-class pulverizing systems and services provided by Powder King®.