Elite Plastics launches new film line
Extruder of polythene, Elite Plastics claims its research and development has enabled them to create ‘recipes’ that enable them to manufacture cutting edge polythene films for multiple industries.
Elite Plastics has invested in a bespoke 3 layer co-extrusion blown film line from Italian designer and manufacturer of complete extrusions line for packaging and converting, Bandera. The line has been developed to utilise at least 30% recycled content into the film recipe. The company claims It features a compact and functional layout providing Elite with maximum flexibility for a variety of applications. It also has a flexo printing facility.
Josh Salmon, Commercial Director at Elite Plastics said: “Bandera are among the world leaders in building complete blown film lines, their company started in 1947 and with this heritage comes decades of experience and expertise. They utilise the latest technologies to produce lines that will allow us to drive forward technical innovation in the film market. We asked Bandera to propose a state of the art line for Elite Plastics and Bandera met the brief perfectly.”
The company says It has been a long process for Elite Plastics to get to the point of commissioning the product. The site had to be prepared and crucially the roof had to be raised to provide the required height. Additionally, Elite have taken the opportunity to install a large Solar PV system on the roofs of both their extrusion halls, which forms part of Elite’s Net Zero Strategy.
Despite the large amount of work, Josh Salmon is confident that the result will be well worth the investment: “We will be extruding products like shrink films, high performance films, form fill and seal films, lamination films and other technical films using LDPE, LLDPE, EVA, MDPE, MLLDPE etc.” he explains.
The project has been supported in the UK by the team at UK Extrusion who are agents for Bandera, and provide UK based engineers to support Bandera installations and continued service. Josh Salmon describes the relationship between the two companies as “more of a partnership than a customer/supplier relationship.” Speaking about the commissioning he said: “This has been fantastic as our engineering team have built the line, which has been a remarkable internal project, with support and communication from Bandera and UK Extrusion when needed at different phases. The engineers are now on-site completing final mechanical checks before we put power to the line and start all the electrical checks. We will then start running tests of the new line. The whole team are very excited to start running wet tests. We expect to be in full production at the beginning shortly.”
Steve Trainor, managing director of UK Extrusion concluded: “We always look on each project as a partnership with our client, and in this particular instance it could be seen as akin to a marriage. Josh and I have some colourful conversations, but behind the humour are two people who respect one another’s abilities and goals. It has been a pleasure for our team to work with Elite Plastics and we are very excited to see the first film coming off the new line.”