Feb 2 2011
PCC (Plastics Color Corporation), a leading polymer solutions provider and supplier of color concentrates, pre-colored resins and additive masterbatches for the plastics industry, has announced the opening of its new clean compounding facility in Southern California.
Modeled after PCC’s successful “Plant-Within-a-Plant” concept operating at PCC’s Asheboro, North Carolina campus since 2009, the California operation was designed to address risk mitigation. The plant operates in a clean environment where special measures have been taken to guarantee clean compounding. Water curtain air filters remove particulates from the plant’s air supply. The air is cycled every four to five minutes through this system. The water for the strand cooling baths passes through a five-micron filter and ultra-violet lights that destroy 100 percent of all microbes, providing a clean product for medical and food use.
PCC's New California Clean Compounding Line
According to project manager Alan Abrams, “The entire process only requires the operator to start the process at the raw material point, after that, the production line is hands-off.”
“We have taken great care to provide a needed production methodology to the marketplace,” says Joe Byrne, VP of Sales and Marketing. According to Byrne, “We have identified this configuration as the best way to meet the clean compounding aspect of production along with the speed and flexibility requirements of an ever-changing market.” The California plant will address PCC's existing customers’ needs in a wide range of manufacturing markets, product types and volumes.
In keeping with PCC’s commitment to environmentally sound manufacturing, the plant uses the latest low energy-consumption machinery and a lighting system that uses daylight when available and low energy fluorescents only when necessary and when turned on by motion sensors.
“The growing demands for clean compounding from the medical, pharmaceutical and food packaging industries drove our decision to build this facility,” said Byrne. “Our California plant offers state-of-the-art capabilities in an environment designed to meet the strictest requirements of these industries.” The plant will also warehouse PCC’s commodity products for rapid distribution to locations in the U.S. and Mexico.