Sigma adds Gloucester cast film line for stretch film productionSigma adds Gloucester cast film line for stretch film production

Sigma Plastics Group (Lyndhurst, NJ) has purchased an integrated shrink-film production system from Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc. that will allow it to produce up to nine rolls of stretch film simultaneously, with each roll being as much as 20-inches wide. GEC President Carl Johnson told PlasticsToday that the system is capable of 3 tons of net production/hr but declined to reveal its investment value, per Sigma's request.

To be installed at Sigma's Shelbyville, KY operation, the cell includes a cast film line with Extrol control system, including automatic profile control software, as well as Contracool extruders and complete auxiliaries (central vacuum material loading systems, blenders, screws, screen changers), dies, casting unit, an IR thickness gauge, edge trim station, and winder.

Johnson said in a release that his company's relationship with Sigma goes back to 1978, when Sigma purchased two garment film lines purchased from GEC. Sigma produces a variety of extruded polyethylene film and bag products from 38 plants throughout North America, running more than 450 extruders. Johnson said Sigma owns "several hundred Gloucester extruders." The company processes more than 1.7 billion lb of material a year, running 24/7.

Per Nylen, executive VP Sigma Stretch Film, said in a release that the new cast film line was required to support its growth. "We know the GEC machine is a durable workhorse and that it will push as many pounds an hour 20 years from now as it did the day it was commissioned," Nylen said.