The Customer
Tech Folien is part of the Polyart Group and a leading UK niche manufacturer of PE, PP and other co-extruded blown films. Located in a 40,000 sq/ft production facility in Speke, a suburb of Liverpool, the company is BRCGS Packaging Materials and ISO 9001:2015 certified, and a major supplier to the food industry, offering a wide range of transparent, white, and coloured films in thicknesses from 10 to 600-micron that are single or double-side corona treated, as well as top-coated products – all are recyclable.
The Problem
Tech Folien was experiencing ongoing issues with the quality of surface treatment provided by the American manufactured corona technology fitted to its range of extruders. The existing technology was incapable of handling the variety of work being undertaken and response from the manufacturer to issues being encountered was unsatisfactory. With further extruder investment planned, the company needed to ensure better and more consistent surface treatment.
The Investment
The £1.5m investment included two 1920mm double-sided Vetaphone VE2C-B stations with segmented electrodes fitted to a Hosokawa Alpine HX75 Flex Mono Extruder. The Alpine has a 75mm screw, a maximum working width of 1800mm and can produce 10 – 200-micron LD, LLDPE, and HDPE at up to 150m/min. The Vetaphone iCorona generator 2UL has an 8kW rating and the whole system is controlled by an iCC7 panel with Profinet interface. The 90-degree extraction blower has a 2.2kW motor capable of venting 32m3 air per minute.
The Solution
After reviewing the market alternatives and considering its own experience with a 20-year-old Vetaphone unit running on another manufacturer’s generator, it became obvious that the Danish pioneer of corona was the market leader and sets the industry standard in performance and value for money. This time Tech Folien was keen to see what Vetaphone could offer as a complete package.
The Result
The consistent and reliable performance of the Vetaphone corona treaters fits well with Tech Folien’s approach to niche products in which it has an extensive knowledge of modifiers and additives that allows it to develop films for specific applications in today’s sophisticated and demanding markets. Most of its production is LD film like PP with little demand for HD films anymore. Market segments served include self-adhesive laminators, silicone coaters, food contact and packaging films, narrow web labels and tags, graphics, automative construction and mail-order and security work.
