Americhem, Inc. (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; www.americhem.com) is expanding operations at its Suzhou, China, plant with a new, state-of-the-art extrusion line for soft polymer compounding. This is the second expansion in three years for the facility located in Suzhou Industrial Park, which began operation in 2006. The addition of the new manufacturing line will now allow more convenient compounding of soft polymers.
The new extruder line features a fully automated underwater pelletizer that allows the processing of soft materials, like TPE and TPU, to meet the growing demand for soft-touch materials worldwide, especially in Asia. The new line also includes imported high-end twin screw extruders with side feeders, a liquid feeding system and a large drying hopper. The plant is well equipped to handle all kinds of strand-handling systems-including waterbath, conveyor-belt and high-speed-intensive mixer-to provide effective mixing of all kinds of formulations.
“Between Americhem’s constant growth and the increasing demand for soft touch products, this new TPE line in China will only further enhance our offerings to customers,” explains Matthew Hellstern, CEO of Americhem. “Our Suzhou plant has the ISO 9001/14001 and ISO13485 certifications for compounding and coloring engineering compounds for medical applications, which we look forward to expanding upon for our TPE/TPU customers.”