Clariant officials expect the new line to open during the fourth quarter of 2017. Company officials touted the news this week at MD&M West 2017 in Anaheim, Calif. (Booth #2450).
Built around a new 70 mm extruder, the new compounding line will have the ability to handle larger batch sizes. Think batches running into the thousands of kilograms, at high throughput rates. Clariant will focus production will focus on materials inluding polyolefins, ABS, and PC and PC alloys. The line will also be able to handle specialty resins such as TPU and cyclic olefins.
Clariant officials also expect the Lewiston expansion to boost process flow and material handling.
“Over the last five years, Clariant has pioneered the development of masterbatches for the healthcare sector. These are color and additive concentrates that are added to natural polymers during molding or extrusion of finished products. However, in some cases, medical processors may prefer to use a pre-colored compound instead, perhaps for ease of handling or because of technical difficulties in the molding or extrusion process. And yet, they have the same need for controlled, consistent and compliant materials,” Steve Duckworth, head of global segment healthcare polymer solutions at Clariant, said in a news release.
Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland) offers Mevopur-branded materials for applications in medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging. Lewiston is one of three plants to company operates to product such materials; the other two are inMalmö, Sweden, and Singapore. All three locations are EN-ISO13485 (2012) certified.
Clariant pre-tests its raw materials to standards including USP <87><88> (‘USP Class VI’) and ISO10993.
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