Mocom Compounds Corp. has added a new extrusion line at its plant in Duncan, S.C.
The 70-millimeter line began commercial production this month. It's making compounds based on polypropylene, nylon and similar materials. These compounds are being used in a wide range of applications, including automotive interior lighting, President and CEO Tony Smith said in a recent interview with Plastics News.
"We had started to grow our compounding business two and a half years ago because of interest from automotive and from industrial in general, but then we ran into delays in getting equipment," he added.
The new extrusion line is Mocom's third at the site, where it also operates a small-scale developmental line. Smith said the site has room for four more production lines.
Mocom also is looking to add grinding and repelletizing equipment in Duncan to better use recycled content in its compounds. Moving forward, Smith said that Mocom is focused on sustainability and on high-performance specialty compounds. "Our strategy is based on sustainability," he added.
In sustainable products, Mocom's product mix includes Altech-brand compounds based on post-industrial and post-consumer recyclate of engineered resins and Alfater XL ECO, a thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) based on post-industrial PP and/or bio-based materials.
Other sustainable materials made by Mocom include Cellidor-brand cellulose-based amorphous thermoplastics and its WIC portfolio of carbon-fiber compounds based on recycled carbon fibers.
Mocom is a unit of Mocom Compounds GmbH & Co. KG of Hamburg, Germany. That business was spun off from Albis Plastics, a leading European resin distributor, in late 2020. Mocom, Albis and recycler Wipag all are part of Otto Krahn Group.
The new extrusion line has allowed Mocom to add eight jobs in Duncan. Overall, the firm employs more than 700 at three sites in Germany, as well as its plant in Duncan and one in China. The firm operates more than 60 production lines at those sites, making 4,000 products for more than 5,000 customers.