Materials firm Polyram Plastic Industries Ltd. has opened a production site in Evansville, Ind.
Polyram, which is based in Ram-On, Israel, now operates two production lines and employs 15 in a 100,000-square-foot facility in Evansville. The firm has invested $10 million at the site and plans to increase its staff size there to 50 by 2022, officials said.
The lines are producing Bondyram-brand coupling agents, compatibilizers and adhesive resins. These materials are made via reactive extrusion where monomers such as maleic anhydride are grafted into an olefin polymer chain. Bondyram products are used as tie layers in multilayer co-extrusion applications.
A third Bondyram line in Evansville is expected to start production. When the third line comes on, the site will have annual production capacity of 35 million pounds of Bondyram materials. The Evansville site is Polyram's first in the United States and fourth worldwide.
Polyram also plans to begin production of Polytron materials at the Evansville site in March. Polytron is a long glass fiber compound based on either nylon or polypropylene. The materials are fully impregnated through a pultrusion process which, officials said, offers exceptional properties for weight and cost reduction. Polytron pellets can be 5-25 mm in length and can offer long glass fiber content ranging from 20 percent to 60 percent.
“We are excited to offer our existing and new customers a long fiber manufacturing service in the U.S.,” CEO Yuval Peleg said in a news release. “We thank them for their support in promoting the project.”
Polyram first announced its plans for Evansville in mid-2017. It also has two production sites in Israel and one in China. At the time, company officials said that Evansville was chosen because of its ideal logistical location and highly-skilled workforce.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is providing Polyram with up to $275,000 in conditional tax credits and up to $50,000 in training grants for the site. The agency also is funding up to $50,000 to Vanderburgh County for infrastructure assistance.
