Commex installing new blown film extrusion line in California

Polyethylene film and sheet extruder Commex Corp. of Hayward, Calif., is installing more equipment from Windmöller & Hölscher KG of Lengerich, Germany, and adding space.

Commex is installing a W&H three-layer Varex II blown film extrusion line with a width of 86.6 inches, output in the range of 1,700-2,000 pounds per hour and an operational startup planned in October, Edward Yau said. He founded the business in 1987 and continues as owner and president.

Commex began working with Hayward authorities in September 2015.

Machine “installation is one thing,” Yau said in a telephone interview. “Working with the city involved issues.” Those included meeting seismic and other code requirements, particularly for the tower base.

“We had to go four-to-six feet underground, create a spider-like web and pour 66 loads of concrete” to detach the tower from the building, Yau said. “In any seismic incident, the tower will not move.”

The new machine “will give Commex a position on the West Coast of being the premium quality film producer,” said Roger Hewson, western U.S. territory sales manager for W&H's North American sales and equipment and parts distribution unit, Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp. in Lincoln, R.I.

Yau bought a Gloucester line with a 3½-inch monolayer die for inline printing and bag making capabilities, initially for production of PE film for the competitive grocery sack market.

In 1990, Yau purchased a 124-inch-wide Sano monolayer blown film extrusion line to manufacture sheet for converters in the West. At the time, that machine was one of the wider state-of-the-art lines in the market.

In 1997, Commex aimed to expand its capabilities and acquired a 63-inch-wide W&H three-layer Varex line boosting quality film output.

John Lothrop, director of operations, joined Commex in 2007.

Commex upgraded the W&H machine in 2012 with a new die, air ring, cage and control upgrades. “Commex literally increased the line's output by 35 to 45 percent,” Hewson said.

W&H based the Varex II design on a modular film-extrusion concept that permits a wide range of configurations.

With growing demand for more three-layer film, Commex committed to adding the Varex II and totally upgrading adjacent space. After leasing for many years, Commex acquired the entire Hayward building housing its operations and others for $8 million in 2012.

Tenants lease 50,000 square feet of the 125,000-square-foot structure, and Commex currently uses 50,000 square feet.

Commex began occupying and totally refurbishing the remaining 25,000 square feet both to accommodate the new Varex II line and have room for the possibility of another machine.

Commex employs 32 and had 2015 sales of $6 million. Yau projects that Commex sales may approach $6.5 million this year.

The firm's biggest customer, PE film user Emerald Packaging Inc., is located in Union City, about nine miles from the Commex facility in Hayward.