Extrusion-Film & Sheet

Processors of stretch film can choose to go the cast-film route or employ a blown-film line but they can also make their product film go further via use of pre-stretch equipment.

Calcium carbonate loadings of up to 50% are possible in a twin-head, three-layer (A/B/A) blown-film line from Kang Chyau Industry (Taipei).

Extrusion machinery supplier Leistritz has set up two of its MAXX twin-screw extrusion systems, and related auxiliary equipment, in its Somerville, NJ lab to process undried PET and directly extrude it in sheet form. Leistritz says only that the result is a quality product with "dramatically less energy consumption."

Expanding the scope of recycled materials for the company's environmentally friendly decking and other green building materials, Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies (A.E.R.T.) opened a new, state-of-the-art polyethylene recycling facility in Watts, OK. The 70,000-ft² facility will allow A.E.R.T. to recover and utilize a wider range of polyethylene materials including plastic film and food packaging and containers.

With sales returning to the levels seen in 2008, the company's best year on record, film and sheet extrusion systems supplier Macro Engineering & Technology Inc. (Mississauga, ON) is planning to expand its production floor space by approximately 40%. The new room will be used mainly for setting up and testing machinery prior to shipment.

In a sign that global investment is picking up in the plastics sector, Taiwanese compounding extruder supplier Sino-Alloy Machinery Inc. (Taoyuan) has scored a number of successes of late in delivery of equipment to Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East.

When a heat exchanger begins to fail or becomes problematic, it may be indicative of various problems ranging from inappropriate mechanical design to unforeseen chemical reactions. But, is it better to replace or to repair a heat exchanger?—By American Power Services (Erlanger, KY)

Sheet, compounds, and packaging products supplier Spartech Corp. (St. Louis, MO) will open a new technology center in St. Louis, combining its material, product, and packaging development centers into one location. The new center will expand to an 80,000- to 100,000-ft² facility that Spartech plans to have operational by mid-summer 2010.

Even though manufacturing activity at U.S. firms slowed up a bit compared with January, the latest data from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM; Tempe, AZ) showed February was the seventh successive positive month. The hope is that the activity will filter into other sectors; the fear is that current activity may be largely due to replacement of depleted inventories.

Some plastics packaging processors' sustainability plans are further along than others. Among the pace setters is Innovia Films, which has earned CarbonNeutral certification for its range of cellulose-based NatureFlex coated biodegradable and compostable packaging films.