Materials supplier Clariant is expanding its plant in Lewiston, Maine, installing a new compounding line to help meet growing demand for pre-colored medical plastic compounds.
The Swiss specialty company announced Feb. 6 that the new capacity for the compounds — supplied under the Mevopur brand name — will come on-line in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The new compounding line, built around a new 70 millimeter extruder, will be able produce larger batch sizes (for example, 3,000 to 6,000 kilograms or larger) at high throughput rates, said the Muttenz-based company.
Production at the site will focus on materials such as polyolefins, ABS, polycarbonate and PC alloys as well as specialty resins like thermoplastic urethanes, and cyclic olefins.
In terms of operational processes, Clariant said the EN-ISO13485 (2012) certified site is also being expanded to improve process-flow and material-handling.
Clariant's Mevopur materials are offered for applications in medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging.
The Lewiston plant, as well as facilities in Malmo, Sweden, and Singapore, are the company's three global sites for production of materials used in medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging.