Argotec expands film extrusion

Film extruder Argotec Inc. (Greenfield, MA) will more than double its 56,000 sq ft of manufacturing space with the purchase of a 60,000-sq-ft building located in its current industrial park. The company, which extrudes optical, medical, and weatherable films from two sites within the Greenfield Industrial Park, also plans to increase staff by 10%, purchase new extrusion equipment, and add multiple atmosphere-controlled cleanrooms as part of the expansion, which should be completed by June 2008. Argotec supplies polyurethane film and sheet using blown-film, cast-on-carrier, and flat-die extrusion technologies.

According to Scott Farland, Argotec’s director of marketing, the company is purchasing additional flat-die film extruders capable of extruding PUR and other difficult-to-process polymers into films ranging from 0.2 to 125 mils thick and in widths up to 78 inches. Farland said Argotec had previously operated extrusion lines in two different hard-walled cleanrooms, plus several soft-walled cleanrooms, and that the new site will be able to produce all the films the company currently extrudes.