Plastics Color Corp. (PCC; Calumet City, IL) has opened its new clean compounding facility in Sun Valley, CA, modeling its fourth production plant after its segregated "Plant Within a Plant" concept initially unveiled at PCC's Asheboro, NC campus. The supplier of color concentrates, additive masterbatches, pre-colored resin, and toll compounding initially announced plans for the facility in Southern California in May 2010.

The 30,000-ft² Sun Valley plant will employ 14 at startup and operate two segregated clean lines, targeting the medical, pharmaceutical, and food-packaging industries The plant will also warehouse PCC's commodity products for distribution to locations in the U.S. and Mexico, as well as storing PCC's black and white products for quick delivery.

Joe Byrne, PCC VP of sales and marketing, said last May that the demand for clean compounding and PCC's market research indicated that "this type of production is where our major opportunities are." Byrne said PCC also wanted the ability to service its growing number of West Coast customers with the same capabilities currently available from its Asheboro and Calumet City facilities.

PCC had already ordered two twin-screw extruders with the requisite ancillary machinery and began training of  personnel in Asheboro. The company hopes the new California plant, which joins facilities in North Carolina, Illinois, and Nanjing, China, will make it "the industry's leading clean-compounding company."

PCC's new California plant operates in a clean environment where water-curtain air filters remove particulates from the plant's air supply, and the air itself is cycled every four to five minutes through the system. The water for the strand-cooling baths passes through a 5-µm filter and ultraviolet lights that reportedly destroy 100% of all microbes, providing a clean product for medical and food use.

PCC will be exhibiting at Medical Design & Manufacturing West (MD&M; Feb. 8-10; Anaheim, CA) at booth #3947. MD&M is operated by the events division of PlasticsToday's parent company, UBM Canon.