Plastics Color to spend almost US$3M to expand 'plant within a plant' at its Asheboro, North Carolina, color and additive concentrates operation

Liling Tan

LOS ANGELES , August 25, 2009 (IndustryIntel) – Plastics Color Corp. (PCC) will spend almost US$3.0 million on phase two of its “plant within a plant” at its Asheboro, North Carolina, color and additive concentrates operation, Plastics News reported on Aug. 21.

The project will expand the existing 7,000 square-foot facility by another 15,000 square feet and add two more twin-screw production lines to the existing single twin-screw production line and single-screw pilot line.

The expanded facility, which is expected to open in early 2010, aims to optimize turnarounds and provide a closed-loop manufacturing system, officials told Plastics News.

Calumet City, Illinois-based PCC opened the existing “plant within a plant” in mid-2008, and to date has used it to test new products and to produce specialty materials for the medical and food packaging markets. Since its mid-2008 opening, products made at the unit have been based on polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP).

Prior to the opening, PCC’s Asheboro facility made specialty materials in the same area of the plant where it made more commodity-style products, said PCC President Doug Borgsdorf, who called the previous setup “less than ideal.” The new setup reduced cross-contamination risks with a closed-loop water system and new equipment such as a sterilized water bath.

Late last year, the new operation provided a composite based polylactic acid (PLA) that Clemson University and Gala Herbs Inc. used to make a bioresin composite bottle. Pharmaceutical packaging, prescription bottles and IV components are some of the other products made by new PCC materials, reported Plastics News.

Recent success for PCC came from masterbatch additives that used a Rohm and Haas Inc. impact modifier called Paraloid, which provided better impact strength in food packaging such as for clamshell containers. In 2008, PCC posted sales of about $40 million.

The primary source of this article is Plastics News, Akron, Ohio, on Aug. 21, 2009.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.