Compounder S&E Specialty Polymers LLC has increased its toll compounding capacity to 15 million pounds per year by installing a new twin-screw extrusion line at its plant in Lunenburg, Mass.
The new line has more than twice the capacity of an old line it replaced, national sales director Jay Munsey said in a March 19 phone interview. It allows Lunenburg-based S&E to have “a more diverse output” in its tolling work, according to Munsey, since it can process PVC resins and alloys, as well as thermoplastic olefins and concentrates that use flame retardants and UV stabilizers.
In a news release, S&E President and Chief Operating Officer Duane Shooltz said that tolling “is a service that many of our customers kept asking us for, and we wanted to accommodate the increased demand.”
“We have now reached the point that we feel we can meet their tolling needs with the level of quality and service that we have always held for ourselves,” he added.
Tolling accounted for about 25 percent of S&E's sales in 2013. The firm also makes its own lines of compounds based on PVC, thermoplastic elastomers and other materials. Wire and cable is S&E's largest end market.
S&E's sales volume in pounds increased last year, Munsey said, thanks to growth not only in wire and cable but in markets such as consumer and industrial, automotive and footwear as well. The new line gives S&E six full production lines, as well as a smaller line that is used for low-volume orders. The firm employs more than 60 people, including about 40 in production.
Late last year, S&E added two new SEBS-type styrenic block copolymers to its TufPrene-brand product line. Those materials are alternatives to PVC and are being aimed at such applications as handles, storage containers and medical uses.
S&E was formed in 2004 when local businessman Steven Graham bought the former Gitto Global Corp. In 2005, S&E added the intellectual property assets of PVC compounder Lynn Plastics Corp.
