Film extrusion: At Macchi, developments continue apace

Among those goals was an expansion, recently completed, which enables the company to work on larger projects, and more of them, simultaneously, and also improved conditions for employees.
 
Recent machine developments have included a nine-layer blown-film line, a new turret winder for cast film, and a 3m cast-film extrusion line for stretch-film processing, noted Michele Ingegnoli, sales and marketing manager at the company. The first nine-layer blown-film line built by the company was sold recently to an Italian processor who is using it for medical and food packaging films, he added.

Other recent development are the firm’s cooperation with electronics giant Siemens for both its control systems and energy-efficient linear motors, now standard on all this company’s blown-film models, and development last year of new software and user interfaces, with these being updated as user feedback is obtained. “For a company like ours, R&D isn’t 20 people located in a lab. It’s listening to our customers and learning from and with them,” he said.

Blown-film lines account for about 80-90% of the company’s turnover, but as recent developments show, “We see potential in the cast-film market, too,” said Ingegnoli. Though not a radical change, he did say the company is reorganizing a bit “to put more into our after-sales operations.” And it is already looking ahead to next October’s K show. “We’re already planning something big for the next K,” he said, indicating it was being worked on with another company, which he would not identify. —[email protected]