Extrusion systems supplier Colines SpA (Nibbia, Italy) says five of its Handrollex cast coextrusion plants for the production of stretch film reels, good for both manual and automatic wrapping, now are in different stages of manufacture for customers in Europe, South America and North Africa, while it predicts an open house in late November may soon bring in new orders.

Colines says Handrollex lines do not need slitting machines since they produce manual as well as automatic film reels directly on the roll cores. Only one operator is required to handle production. Recent improvements to the Handrollex units means operators now can use them for the production of 10 small reels, with a width of 100 mm each, in addition to the sizes already possible (with diameters of 500, 450, 250, 150 and 125 mm).

The recent open house also highlighted Colines’ work with Syncro on a new optical measuring system, Optiscan, which offers resolution to 1/10 of a micron. The system is said to be easy to use, is self-calibrating and has no radioactive sources. This last can be important as radioactive sources in film line measuring/quality control equipment have gained the attention of import authorities in some countries, and the paperwork required because of this radioactive material can hold up the installation of a film line. So far the Optiscan systems have been tested primarily on Colines’ lines for stretch film, but the firm says it also can be used when processing PP and barrier films.

Colines reports its developments on the Handrollex range will continue, with the company planning to show it at the K 2010 tradeshow.

The manufacturer says it also is installing now a new cast polypropylene (CPP) sheet line to processor B-Pack Due SpA (Venturina, Italy). The useful width of the line is 2800 mm, with the maximum production speed for technical films 400 m/min or more.