a custom injection molder in South Elgin, Ill.

Senior reporter Bill Bregar, who coordinates the Processor of the Year Award, will visit all three finalists.

Once again this year, the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. is sponsoring the Processor of the Year Award.

Here is a look at the three finalists, in alphabetical order:

AMA Plastics

AMA, one of the largest custom injection molders in the western United States, molds parts for electronics, medical and consumer products on 90 presses, nearly all of them Toyo machines. Clamping forces range from 35-720 tons. The majority are equipped with Yushin robots.

Sales have climbed steadily, to $52 million in 2013, up from $31 million in 2009 —and AMA fared well in the recession, showing just a small dip in sales.

The company employs about 400. About180 are full-time. That number includes a 33 percent Employee Ownership Stock Plan that began in 2008, and employees were fully vested in 2012, according to Katie Eckles, marketing associate.

AMA began in 1971, when brothers Joe and Jim Atchison founded Moldtronics Inc. in Anaheim, Calif. Joe's son, Mark Atchison, bought the company in 1993.

AMA has adopted RJG molding principles. General manager Ken Pravitz is an RJG Master Molder II and a certified instructor, and the RJG knowhow has spread through the entire company. AMA has six Master Molders, and has 21 technicians trained in systematic molding.

AMA has been in a steady expansion track. In 1993, the company opened a 35,000-square-foot plant in Tucson, Ariz. An even bigger move came in 1995, when AMA moved from Anaheim, where it