UK Extrusion’s debut Interplas UK September 2021 was certainly a baptism of fire. Not just all the usual anxieties for first-time exhibitors, but unique issues surrounding the pandemic and associated concerns.

Steve Trainor, managing director of UK Extrusion says “It would be arrogant to say we got everything right first time. This has been a learning curve and we have a few things that on another occasion we would do differently, in regard to how we exhibited our machinery. But the long and the short of it is, we were able to talk to large numbers of people face to face and demonstrate how we can help to make them more efficient and cost-effective.”

UK Extrusion sells, install and support Bandera, manufacturer of blown film, foil and sheet extrusion lines and both  Plasmac and Syncro Group products associated with extrusion and post-industrial waste recycling by manufacturers. Steve Trainor comments “One of the things our customers find particularly reassuring about UK Extrusion is that we have a team of engineers based here in the UK. This strategy came into its own during the travel restrictions of the pandemic and is a feature of both of our Finalist entries into the Plastics Industry Awards.

Featured on the company’s Interplas UK stand was the Plasmac Epsilon post-industrial waste recycling system, which attracted a great deal of attention. Taking plastic sprues from an injection moulding machine manufacturing on a neighbouring stand, it demonstrated how quality, uniform pellets can be produced by this small footprint recycling extruder. An order for another model within the Plasmac range of equipment, which was finalised at the exhibition, will be showcased shortly.

Also displayed, was an automatic Typhoon air ring from Syncro Group. Designed for efficiency and accurate profile control, the air ring guarantees the best performances in terms of cooling capacity, bubble stability, minimum pressure drop, and easy handling. Visitors also showed interest in the Syncro Pure Continuous Loss in Weight Gravimetric Blender. Uniquely designed, it is the only inline quality control device to blend multiple components simultaneously for all processes where a homogeneous mix is critical to achieving an excellent final product.

An eye-catching display of the 100% visual inspection system for plastic film from Syncro lived up to its name of ‘EYES’.  Thanks to the high-resolution cameras and the different backlighting configurations available, the system can provide 100% film scanning capability, detecting and categorizing all common defects. EYES’s provides film inspection with a complete mapping of defects detected within each roll.

Bandera lines were clearly prohibitively large to consider installing for display at Interplas UK on this occasion, but video reels were available and UK Extrusion was supported by 2 technical managers from the Italian company who constantly chatted with visiting customers.

Steve Trainor is delighted that a final agreement to purchase a Bandera Smartflex HP Plus 3 layer blown film line was made at Interplas UK by Elite Plastics. Elite is undergoing a multi-million-pound investment strategy that includes investing in state of the art blown film lines to increase Elite’s technical capabilities, sustainability and site capacity. He says “During the specification and quotation phase of this sale, the pandemic created the impossibility of visiting site. Therefore, regular meetings were held via Teams video conferencing between the team from Elite, UK Extrusion and Bandera in Italy.  By using such technology, we were able to bring a group of experts together to discuss Elites technical requirements in detail, which provided them with a great deal of confidence in the outcome of their investment.”

The post Post-Industrial Waste Recycling Lines a Hit at Interplas UK first appeared on UK Extrusion.

Established in 1987, Mister Blister manufactures thermoformed blister packaging and blister packs for retail, catering and supermarkets supply chains. Their products have been widely used in various retail sectors throughout Europe for the past 15 years. They have invested in a Multi-layer PET Rigid Film extrusion line, supplied by UK Extrusion Ltd & manufacturer, Bandera.

Back in 2016, Mister Blister was purchasing PET sheet from various suppliers all over Europe. With the uncertainty over Brexit and the volatile exchange rate, Mister Blister began exploring the business case for switching production from PVC to PET – a food-grade plastic preferred by larger clients in the supermarket supply chain. As the plastics industry are aware, PET has some outstanding advantages as a food packaging product, from helping to reduce food waste to being fully recyclable, light, robust, flexible and easy to transport. Gary Briscoe, Managing Director of Mister Blister says “Having successfully manufactured our packs from PVC for over a decade it had become clear that larger customers and some international markets were insisting that all thermoforming products should be made from PET. In order for us to maintain our competitive prices and lead times it was essential that we produce our own sheet and recycle our own thermoformed scrap on-site.”

Business case proved, Mister Blister arrived at the decision to make the shift to PET production. Shortly after making the switch, it became apparent to Mister Blister that investment in rigid sheet extrusion line would ensure consistency and quality of supply and a sound return on investment. This would enable them to recycle their own skeletal waste from their thermoforming machines into new ‘rPET’ plastic sheet and would be highly beneficial to the business. rPET contains approximately 70% recycled post-consumer waste material and is an ideal choice for an ecologically sound packaging solution. Additionally, rPET has excellent structural integrity, transparency and can take high-quality printing using a variety of printing techniques. Gary Briscoe explains “Switching from PVC to PET has opened up new markets for us in the food sector with larger clients and we wanted to go further to create a more stable and secure supply of raw material by recycling as much of our production waste as possible.”

Gary Briscoe explored the extrusion line market and took opinions from leading players for whom he has a good deal or respect. It was essential to him to purchase a line from an experienced manufacturer with an established support network in the UK. He says, “UK Extrusion already supported 12 existing extrusion lines in the UK and more were being ordered and installed. I felt that support and partnership were particularly important in a project of this magnitude. I was impressed by their enthusiasm and understanding of what I was wanting to achieve and as it turns out, I was rightly confident that they would work with me to achieve my goals.”

UK Extrusion took a design team from Bandera to visit the Mister Blister site and spent time gaining an understanding of the company’s production and crucially, of what they expected from the purchase of a new line. With a production line of this scale, it was essential that UK Extrusion was fully aware of where it would be positioned to be able to calculate height availability and space. They would need to be able to provide an effective conduit between the manufacturer of the line and their customer.

Luigi Bandera, the Italian manufacturer of UK Extrusion’s film and sheet lines, have invested heavily in an R & D centre. UK Extrusion was able to arrange for Mister Blister to visit this centre and all three parties worked together to design the elements of a Multi-layer PET Rigid Film Extrusion line which would satisfy Mister Blisters exact requirements and deliver the results they sought.

The PET rigid film extrusion line is designed for the production of thermoformed packaging products, using PET: post-consumer bottle flakes, skeletal thermoforming flakes and/or bottle pre-forms in flake form and/or virgin material in pellets. Should the company wish to do so, there is also the option of producing C-PET, PET-G, PP, PS and PLA rigid film with no major technical changes to the extrusion line.

UK Extrusion working with Luigi Bandera provided Mister Blister with charts and descriptions explaining every detail of what they could expect from the line in terms of layer composition and structures, thickness range, widths and throughputs. Clearly, there are a lot of sophisticated parts that go to make up a complete line and an understanding of these parts is highly beneficial to the customer. UK Extrusion and Bandera provided a detailed breakdown for Mister Blister and went through the details with their team to ensure they were happy.

Mister Blister were able to refurbish the building they had ear-marked for the line whilst it was being constructed in Italy and UK Extrusion constantly liaised with them to confirm that utilities were in the correct positions etc. Gary Briscoe says “At times, I considered charging UK Extrusion bed and board, they were here so much. Joking apart, it was reassuring to find that they were taking our substantial investment so seriously.”

When the processing line was complete, Mister Blister were invited to Bandera once again to wet test the line before it was delivered.  Accompanied by the team from UK Extrusion, who would be supporting the installation back in the UK, alongside the specialist team from Bandera, Mister Blister’s engineers spent 2 weeks at Bandera operating the line and running various thickness of sheet. This finished product was shipped back to Mister Blister for approval. Only when Mister Blister declared themselves satisfied, which was actually straight away, were arrangements put in place to deliver the line to their premises and install.

Working with Factory Manager Ian Rylands, who had been overseeing the preparation of the site, a team of engineers from Luigi Bandera, supported by engineers from UK Extrusion began the installation. From start to wet test finish the operation took 4 weeks.

The PET rigid film extrusion line was installed over a period of 4 weeks using initially a Bandera mechanical engineer, accompanied by a UK Extrusion engineer. After 3 weeks, the mechanical installation was complete. A Bandera electrical engineer then attended site, again accompanied by a UK Extrusion engineer for a period of 1 week.

Once the electrical and mechanical installation had been completed a training technician spent 2 weeks running the line with Mister Blister operators and engineers until all had passed the rigorous training regime. Training certificates were issued to each operator and engineer.

UK Extrusion and Bandera continue to support Mister Blister through the expected issues which occur after installation of a sophisticated, advanced technological, new line of this size. This support is often given remotely, either from UK Extrusion’s UK operation or from Bandera’s “Support Hub” at their HQ close to Milan via an internet connection. This has resulted in issues being resolved within hours, rather than days, which is often the case with manufacturers who do not have this facility. It has also reduced costs for the customer by avoiding the need for UK Extrusion to arrange for Bandera engineers to visit site. Gary Briscoe commented “One of the clear advantages of working with UK Extrusion is the unique access to a UK based engineer which results in a rapid response.

The line is producing an average output of 660 kg/hr and Mister Blister expect to produce 2000 tonnes of material per annum. The majority of this material is earmarked for their own production, but excess sheet that is produced is sold on to other thermoformers in the UK, helping to raise additional revenue for the business. A number of these thermoformers have been identified to the company by UK Extrusion connections throughout the industry.

Mister Blister have also made a commitment to source their rPET material from UK suppliers to lower their carbon footprint in response to the Blue Planet documentary regarding plastics.

The post PET Rigid Film Extrusion Line Success first appeared on UK Extrusion.

Visitors will be able to see these lines, which have been engineered for major European and Asian customers, in full operational mode.  The Alpha PPTM, Alpha VelPet ® and AlphaPet ® lines, will be available to any potential buyers who wish to run tests to establish their specific process requirements and experience the distinctive features and high quality performance of the Bandera Rigid Film Extrusion Lines.

Bandera have used intensive research and development in order to meet the highest standards required by increasingly sophisticated application technologies such as TDO label film, furniture lamination, credit card and packaging industries. Their PET processing technology is available in a wide thickness range (0.12 to 2.20 mm) and output range (700 to 2600 kg/h).

If you would like to discover more about the rigid film extrusion lines available from Bandera and how they could benefit your operation, why not talk to us about arranging a visit for this truly exceptional Open House Event.

The post Bandera Present 5 Rigid Film Extrusion Lines in 2018 first appeared on UK Extrusion.