Metallizer, orienter to increase films capacity

Published: March 01, 1995

New equipment installations will boost the worldwide capacity of the Films Division of Mobil Chemical Co., Pittsford, NY, during 1995.

The addition of a metallizer to the division's Belleville, Ontario, facility and a second orienter to its plant in Kerkrade, the Netherlands, will increase Mobil's annual capacity worldwide to nearly 400 million lb. Installation will begin this July on the 130-in. metallizer unit for the Belleville plant. The metallizer, scheduled for start-up by the fourth quarter, brings a new capability to the facility, significantly changing the product mix.

The plant currently produces coated, uncoated and coextruded film and tape for US and Canadian markets. According to James H. Heagle, the division's manager of manufacturing, bringing the metallizer to the Belleville plant is consistent with the company's strategy of gaining efficiencies by running similar product lines at its plants.

Completion of a second 8-m orienter at Kerkrade is scheduled for the second quarter of this year. This installation comes within 18 months of the plant's opening and promises an increase in capacity of approximately 40-million lb./year.

Mobil currently produces oriented polypropylene film from seven international facilities. The Kerkrade plant is the company's third in Europe. Other European oriented-polypropylene facilities are in Virton, Belgium, and Brindisi, Italy. In North America, the division operates oriented polypropylene plants in Stratford, CT, LaGrange, CA, and Shawnee, OK, in addition to its Belleville site.