M&Q Packaging Corp. is raising the roof at its Schuylkill Haven, Pa., manufacturing plant to accommodate a 72-inch-wide nylon blown film line to be installed by midyear.
The project will cost more than $1 million, according to David Carlin, president of M&Q Plastic Products, the parent of M&Q Packaging Corp.
"We have inquiries for wider widths all the time," Michael Schmal, market development manager of M&Q Packaging, said in a telephone interview.
Schmal said the company expects to have the line installed by the end of June. The new equipment will replace one of the company's eight lines. Previously, the widest width had been 36 inches.
M&Q Packaging reports film and sheet sales of $13 million. It employs 70 at its Pennsylvania facility.
Schmal said wide-width nylon blown film is used for industrial applications such as vacuum bags for processing composites like sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound; cast acrylic mold liners; bent glass manufacturing; circuit-board curing; and solvent-recovery still liners. Other uses include clean room packaging and food packaging.
M&Q Plastic Products, which started in the 1950s making Hula Hoops, manufactures nylon film, convolute tubing and profile extrusions.
Carlin said the company also has added five profile lines in the past year to its manufacturing plants in San Antonio and El Paso, Texas. He said the company has had internal sales growth of 17 percent per year the past five years. Overall, the company lists $48 million in sales.
"We have a ton of new business — in excess of $20 million of new business is pending, but it is all a matter of timing," he said.
Carlin noted automobile work has slumped in the past few months but said the company is picking up business in refrigeration and electronics. On the packaging side, the company is expanding in food, industrial and medical markets.
"Right now, we are staying focused on the longer term," Carlin said.
