After serving in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, our founder, Harry Harp (Double H) entered the work force as a machinist. During the 1950's his interests in machinery and manufacturing led him to seek and obtain a position in sales of tooling machinery.

During Mr. Harp's career in sales, a new material, Plastic, was gaining ground as a replacement for metal and glass. This material piqued his interest. He saw many growth opportunities for plastic and switched from selling tooling machinery to selling Plastic Processing Machinery.

As a visionary and entrepreneur, Mr. Harp saw many uses for plastic and in 1960 he established Double H Plastics. He set up an extrusion process in his basement and produced (invented) the plastic cocktail stirrer / drinking straw in this make shift shop. These straws were rectangular. He quickly developed a printing process for the straws and was able to sell them as a promotional / novelty item.

The extrusion process for rectangular straws was not fast enough to compete with the then current paper straw industry. (Do you remember paper straws?)

Mr. Harp continued to improve the manufacturing process and developed a high speed process for making round plastic drinking straws. Now he was competitive with paper straws and the business began to grow.

While his company was growing, Mr. Harp was hospitalized for a back problem. During his recuperation and while bed ridden he saw the need for a plastic "flex" straw. Upon his return to work, he went back to the drawing board, designed, patented and produced the first "flex straws".

In 1964, Mr. Harp sold his company to Union Carbide Corporation. He stayed on with Union Carbide as an employee and continued to manage this operation for several years following the sale.

While with Union Carbide Mr. Harp paired up with a colleague/machine builder and together they developed and patented a system to automatically blend the colorant with virgin plastic pellets.

Prior to this development color blending was a high cost manual process. This automatic process was low cost and accurate. The plastic revolution was well underway at this time and this patented color-bleeding development contributed to the growth of the industry.

In 1974 his entrepreneurial spirit again took over, he left Union Carbide and reestablished Double H as an extruder of "Dispenstirs" (little plastic tubes) for the medical industry.

Mr. Harp's expertise in extrusion soon led Double H to the manufacturing of plastic cores for smaller paper rolls used in cash registers and adding machines. Extrusion of these cores remains a "CORE" competency for Double H. Approximately 80% of all the cores sold in the United States come from Double H.

In 1985 Mr. Harp had an opportunity to acquire a patented lid molding process from Container Corporation of America. The business was about to lose its one customer. His vision for the process contradicted the plastic industries philosophy of large injection molding machines with high cost multi-cavity molds. He believed that smaller molding machinery with one cavity uncomplicated molds was right for this product. The process was successful and runs that way today, Mr. Harp's way, small machines with uncomplicated molds.

This process is now used to make lids for many products such as ice creams, oatmeal and tissues. The benefits of this process include: low cost of new product start-up, high quality graphics and the "snap" of a plastic lid. Double H Plastics moved into its present location in 1986. The Warminster, PA headquarters currently employs over 200 full-time employees.

In 1998 a new entity was established in Indiana and Double H acquired a core business in Marion. In 1999 the current facility was built. The original building of 50,000 sq. ft. was expanded to 100,000 sq. ft. in 2001.

The core business has extended its product line to include 5 and 6 inch diameter cores and core plugs.

In 2005, the molding business extended its product offering to include solid plastic tubs and lids for ice cream. Since then, the main growth has been in formed paper cups for the ice cream industry. The cup forming capacity compliments the lid capabilities and allows Double H to supply the complete package to its customers.

In 2008, a new entity was created with the purchase of a facility in Morristown, Tennessee. Double H Tennessee will use a portion of the 242,000 sq. ft. building to manufacture Extrusion products for nearby customers. The plant started production on May 5, 2009 and currently employs 12 people.

Continued growth and expansion into emerging technologies and markets is still the mantra for all Double H facilities.