At the end of 2022, additive masterbatch compounder Wells Plastics opened its innovation centre atits Stone HQ. Now fully up and running, Dave Gray paid the facility a visit, and spoke to Carl Birch, sales and marketing director, and Dr Gary Ogden, technical manager, to find out more about the current outlook for additive masterbatch.
On the occasion of its inauguration, Philip Law, Director General of the British Plastics Federation said: ''The BPF's congratulations go to Wells Plastics on the opening of its very well-equipped Innovation Centre. This is a great statement of the technical support provided by Wells Plastics to both the UK plastics industry and in export markets. Wells have nominated circularity as a key innovation theme and this can only help customers meet the challenging targets which are emerging globally''.
It's just one of a string of growth activities that the company has undertaken in recent times. A new raw material warehouse, a management buyout, and the attaining of the Gold EcoVadis certification – recognising Wells Plastics Corporate Social Responsibility systems, polices and work on sustainability - have all helped the firm to cover new ground.
The firm offers a wide range of polymer enhancing properties from improved recyclability, processability, UV stability, antimicrobial performance through to enhanced barrier properties. The firm offers a wide range of additive masterbatches which can enhance polymer properties such as improving recyclability, processability, UV stability, antimicrobial performance through to developing enhanced barrier properties.
Dave Gray: To begin with tell me about the background to the company, and why you’ve decided to open this facility now?
Carl Birch: We were formed in 1984, as a specialist additive masterbatch and compound producer. We've always operated in in the Stone area, and over the past few years there's been strong growth within the business, financially, but also in terms of headcount and customer base. We’ve also seen a greater demand for technical products, with the associated technical support and resource that's required. So as we've invested into that, it became apparent that we needed more space to house that growth.
Gary and his team were growing in terms of headcount, but also they were acquiring more equipment. Some of the equipment was inthe laboratory, and some of it was in the factory or warehouse. So when the opportunity for a nearby unit came up, it really seemed like the ideal time to bring everything together under one roof, in a clean environment.
Gary Ogden: We have two sides to the function of the innovation centre, the analytical side and the processing side. We had a twin-screw compounder next to our analytical kit, which was not ideal – so this move was brilliant, it means we can provide a better service.
Carl Birch: The way that we operate is that we can have customers come on-site as part of a development process, development is not always done in isolation. The new facility provides a much more usable environment for them to come and have an area to do their own work whilst we're doing some work for them. From there we can meet, and discuss the results of that work, and be much more collaborative about the development it.
Dave Gray: And how has it gone so far? Have you had many customers come to use the facility?
Carl Birch: We were up and running at the end of September and we've had customers in every month since then, on a very regular basis.
Dave Gray: And have you had any surprising challenges from them?
Gary Ogden: Obviously we often have confidential agreements in place with the type of work so I am limited on what I can say, but we've got an existing customer who's come up with some brand new applications for them, which involved some novel materials for us as well, so we did a week’s worth of trials for them recently.
There's always something new and challenging. Another recent example would be high clarity polymers which required functional additives incorporating into whilst maintaining the clarity of the base polymer – that is a significant challenge – but is progressing as well.
Carl Birch: Customers will generally come to us with a novel application or materials that might be particularly complex to handle or have difficult processing requirements. Well, we can't do everything, but our goal really is to make a careful technical assessment of whether we think this is something that we can progress into a commercial opportunity.
Gary Ogden: And we can assess that very well with the kit that we've got here. We can do a full on-site technical review of it of the material from an analysis point of view through to how it will process. Our rule of thumb is that if we can process it on the lab line here, then we can process it on the plant – and we have seven lines on the plant, all different configurations.
Dave Gray: Are your formulations exclusive to specific customers?
Carl Birch: It’s a real mixture. We have our own portfolio of products that we've developed and that we service the market with, sold under the Wells Plastics brand. We have another area which is Reverte, which is our oxo- biodegradable material. That’s marketed slightly differently because it tends to be more business-to- consumer, so we have a separate website for that, and then there are our bespoke products and custom compounds which may be totally Wells owned formulations, joint IP, or totally customer owned IP.
Dave Gray: And what are the big trends that you’re seeing from customers?
Carl Birch: We're involved with a number of companies who are trying to improve the recyclability of their materials or who require extra stabilization for their materials during processing to help with the extrusion or properties of their finished articles. Within the UK there's still a keen interest in high performance materials, that’s important because as an industry, we need to remain cutting edge.
Gary Ogden: And of course, the pandemic brought antimicrobial technology to the forefront, so there’s a few projects we’re working on in that area.
Dave Gray: And is there a limit to batch quantities you can offer?
Carl Birch: No, we run seven machines, with different sizes and configurations. We also have the laboratory line which acts as an eighth production light to some extent. We can produce anything from 25 kilos on the labline, through to 20, 30, 40 ton runs on the main plant. It's really quite varied and that's one of our strengths as a business: we have a variety of different lines which have different capabilities.