Honeywell International Inc. has broken ground on an expansion that will add almost 90 million pounds of annual nylon resin capacity at its plant in Chesterfield, Va.
The new production line at the Chesterfield site will make both Aegis-brand nylon 6 and copolymer nylon 6/6/6 resins. Officials with Honeywell in Morris Township, N.J., said that when the line opens, the site will be the first North American supplier of both of those types of resins.
The line is scheduled to come online in the fourth quarter of 2015. When completed, the site will have annual nylon resin production capacity of about 440 million pounds per year.
The new capacity is needed to meet demand for high-grade nylon polymers for packaging film and other applications.
“Honeywell has been committed to the nylon market for more than 60 years,” Erin Kane, resins and chemicals vice president and general manger said in a June 9 news release. “We're investing in expanding our capabilities and developing new technologies.”
The Honeywell project is the fourth nylon-related materials expansion announced for North America in less than three years. Lanxess Corp. opened a nylon compounding plant in Gastonia, N.C., in late 2012, and in October, Italian compounder So.F.Ter Group opened a plant making compounds based on nylon and similar materials in Lebanon, Tenn.
Also in October, materials firm Royal DSM NV announced that it would open a new nylon resin plant in Augusta, Ga., by mid-2016.
In addition to resins, Honeywell makes nylon packaging films under the Aegis and Capran brand names for use in food packaging, as well as in industrial applications such as wind turbine blades and aerospace components. The firm employs 127,000 worldwide and posted sales of $40.3 billion in 2014.
