ISO Poly Films Co-Extrusion Film Line, Gray Court, SC, USA

ISO Poly Films, of Gray Court in the US, which was founded in 1998, underwent a major expansion in 2005 with a total investment of $25 million in the 2005 financial year. The first phase of the expansion project included installation of a co-extrusion film line, bringing the facility's total of film lines to six. This first phase was completed at a cost of $3 million.

The second phase included the construction of a 50,000ft² building to house two seven-layer co-extrusion lines to produce specialty films for the food and medical markets, at a cost of $2 million. This was completed by October 2005. It included 20,000ft² of additional warehouse space with an innovative, automated storage system and 2,800ft² of new office space.

The major part of the expansion was completed by early 2006. This third phase included the investment of $20 million to produce a new packaging facility unique to the film industry.

The facility started operations in the first quarter of 2006. The proposed 30,000ft² building houses eight highly advanced film lines that use the latest technology to produce specialty multi-layer films.

In all, the expansion program has added 80,000ft² to the existing 50,000ft² facility which already had the latest in precision film extrusion equipment – from high-end mono-layer extrusion lines to high barrier film systems. In all, there was an additional 50,000ft² of warehouse space plus 30,000ft² for production that increased the company's capacity for higher-end films.

THREE-LAYER BLOWN FILM EXTRUSION LINE

ISO Poly Films purchased a three-layer blown film extrusion line, Varex System, from Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp. (W&H) of Lincoln, Rhode Island. The new Varex system is the plant's sixth film line.

AUTOMATIC FILM GAUGE CONTROL, INTERNAL BUBBLE COOLING, GRAVIMETRIC DOSING CONTROL

The VAREX® Blown Film Line is a modular blown film system for monolayer and coextrusion, including barrier films. The modular construction principle allowed the Varex system to be perfectly tailored to specific requirements and to be expanded to cover the ever-growing spectrum of applications. Modules such as the OPTIFIL P2® automatic film gauge control system, the internal bubble cooling, the oscillating W&H haul-off with horizontal turning bars, gravimetric dosing control, etc. are important elements of the W&H blown film system.

The integration of the PROCONTROL® system, which has also been used in other W&H lines, and the customer-oriented OPTIFIL PLUS automation module, makes it a reliable system.

The MULTICOOL D® double-deck air-ring, developed from W&H's modular air-ring system, uses a three-stage cooling process. Depending upon product specifications, production output is significantly increased as compared with previous air ring systems. With the introduction of the first automatic OPTIFIL film thickness gauge control, W&H achieved a quantum leap forward in the area of innovative blown film extrusion.

As a result of a specifically targeted melting temperature before the melt exits the die gap, OPTIFIL P2 ensures minimum thickness tolerances and guarantees constancy of film quality. This leads to high efficiency, resulting in optimum and consistent converting characteristics of the film as well as drastic reductions in raw material use.

With MULTICONE®, W&H has developed a modular, price-effective die concept with internal bubble cooling for smaller line widths for the production of coex and barrier films up to seven layers. This innovative die is constructed from conical disks, which are stacked centrally. The innovative design causes greater torsion strength, which in turn leads to a very positive distribution of the individual film layers.

SINGLE WOUND SHEET, CENTER FOLD SHEETING, AND J-SHEET

The current facility can produce sheets of film ranging from 2in to 130in layflat width. It can accommodate a wide variety of customer needs, including single wound sheet - 6in to 130in; center fold sheeting (A or B wind) - 26in to 125in; J-sheet (A or B wind) - 26in to 125in; roll OD - 10in to 42in; core sizes - 3in and 6in. It has the ability to provide gauge ranges from 0.5ml to 28ml and capability for gauge control of ±5% or better.

MODERN TECHNOLOGY ENHANCES PRODUCTION CAPACITIES

ISO Poly Film's ongoing expansion project is mainly intended to make the company internationally competitive. The modern technology and the machinery being installed at the company's manufacturing facility has strengthened production capacity and provided future growth possibilities. The expansion added 50 jobs in the coming years, more than doubling the company's workforce.

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