SÜO PAULO — Polipac Industrial Ltda. will begin thermoforming expanded polystyrene trays this month at a new plant in JoÃŒo Pessoa, Brazil.
Polipac is a 50-50 joint venture between the holding company for Troisdorf, Germany-based machinery supplier Reifenhäuser GmbH & Co. Maschinenfabrik and EPS Participacôes Societrias e Agropecuarias Ltda of Mau , Brazil.
The 37,800-square-foot facility will have capacity to make 200 million trays a year for the food-packaging market, according to general manager Peter von Buldring.
EPS built the $3 million plant and bought some equipment. Reifenhäuser supplied production equipment, including a Reifenhäuser Reitruder twin-screw extruder able to foam PS and polypropylene with any available expanding agent, Buldring said.
``It's the first extruder of its kind installed in Latin America,'' he claimed.
Polipac also is equipped with two German thermoforming machines, and another Reifenhäuser extruder to recycle scrap.
The company will foam PS crystal provided by Resinor Resinas Sintéticas do Nordeste S/A, a resin maker owned by EPS.
``We expect to increase capacity soon and perhaps start expanding PP. In this case, the resin would also have to be imported, since there's no producer for this specific grade of PP in Brazil,'' Buldring said.
Polipac will use technology from packaging producer Silver-Plastics GmbH & Co., a sister company to Reifenhäuser. This new joint venture represents Reifenhäuser's first initiative in Brazil's packaging processing industry. The firm already operates a machinery plant in SÌo Paulo.
Polipac's activities also include a 1.32 million-pound-per-year EPS molding unit that once was owned by EPS and is located adjacent to the new factory. The unit molds blocks for construction applications and coolers.