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06. April 2010
Mondi invests in extrusion coating
Mondi Coatings is continuing to bolster its competitive position as a reliable partner in extrusion coated barrier materials by investing over Euro 13 million in extrusion infrastructure. These investments are market-driven, notes Mondi Coatings CEO Thomas Schäbinger: “Our strategic focus on optimizing operations across our European plant network will allow us to provide customers with the highest quality products and much greater flexibility. We will be able to enhance our response times and improve customer satisfaction.”
Mondi Coatings is pursuing a dual strategy of upgrading existing extruders to enhanced tandem technology, while at the same time setting up new tandem-enabled infrastructure where necessary. These improved technical capabilities will directly benefit customers with accelerated lead times, increased availability of added-value products and higher flexibility.
The Örebro plant (Sweden) resumed 24/7 operation during Q4 2009 and will be upgraded to additional high-speed tandem processing this year: “Particularly in the Scandinavian region, there is a clear trend towards coating consumer products,” says T. Schäbinger, underlining the growing opportunities for the Örebro plant. “Through the investment, we can now run two sided products with different variations of resins, and include board, milk board, cupstock or board for frozen food to our offering,” he adds.
Last year, Mondi Coating Zeltweg (Austria) installed a new rewinder and a new extruder station with co-ex capabilities, reflecting rapid changes in the product mix and a move away from simple paper-PE structures towards more value-added products and new substrates. Along with the new extruder, Mondi Zeltweg also implemented a web inspection system to enhance the quality assurance process. Since Q4 2009, all lines have been in 24/7 operating mode.
The Štětí plant (Czech Republic) boosted its capacity by implementing a fourth extrusion line, including a packing station and rewinder, in 2009. This was in response to increased customer demand and to meet the delivery-time standards required by the nearby German market. Further capacity will go live at Štětí in Q4 2010 with the installation of further co-extrusion technology at one of the existing extruders, thus broadening the plant's product range for wrapping, packaging and building insulation applications and strengthening Mondi Štěti’s ability to offer high-quality, best value-formoney solutions. In addition, during 2009, Mondi installed an in-line glue laminator at the Belcoat plant (Belgium) to broaden the product range for building industry customers. A poly dryer will be added this year to allow processing of high-tech polymers, thus improving material properties and adding new features for state-of-the-art custom solutions, such as higher elasticity, breathability and drapability, for the building, automotive, medical and imaging industries. In order to manage additional market demand, part of the operation has moved to 24/7.
Mondi Coatings, a Business Unit of the Europe & International Division, is an innovative supplier of plastic- and paper-based materials, providing technologies such as extrusion coating, laminating, siliconising and printing. The product range includes efficient barrier materials for industrial papers, technical products as well as applications for the food- & non-food industries. Mondi is an international paper and packaging company, with production operations across 31 countries and revenues of Euro 5.3 billion in 2009.
