Westchester Plastics Completes Expansion at its Wapakoneta Compounding Facility

Westchester Plastics, a leading independent toll compounder of engineering resins, alloys, blends, reactive modifiers and other thermoplastic materials, has significantly expanded compounding capabilities at its Wapakoneta, OH facility. The new capacity provides Westchester Plastics with greater flexibility and processing capabilities and positions the plant to better meet the needs of its customers for high performance engineering resins in numerous markets.

The Wapakoneta facility has more than 50 years of experience in custom compounding of plastic resins and offers a range of capabilities in state-of-the-art twin screw compounding, as well as continuous- mixer technology.  Recent capital investments include:

• Commissioning a new twin-screw compounding line, featuring a 92mm Coperion ZSK MEGA compounder PLUS extrusion system.  This line also features 44:1 L/D, 1250 hp, dual vacuum venting, dual side feeder capability, liquid injection capability, water bath/strand or Gala Underwater Pelletization, chilled process water, Witte Shaker/Cooler, rare earth magnets and electronic metal detection for pellets.

• Commissioning a new twin-screw development size and/or production capable compounding line that features a 40mm Century Extrusion CXE40 High Speed & Torque extrusion system.  Additional features of this line include 44:1 L/D, 1200 RPM max screw speed, dual vacuum venting, dual side feed capability, liquid injection capability, water bath/strand or Gala Underwater Pelletization, chilled process water, Witte Shaker/Cooler, rare earth magnets and electronic metal detection for pellets.

• Upgrading and lengthening an existing 70mm 9 Barrel Coperion Super Compounder to an 11 Barrel MEGA compounder.  Many of the downstream components of this line are the same as the newly commissioned lines detailed above.

• Rebuilding and upgrading an existing #4 Farrell Continuous Mixer compounding line.  Additional features of this line include post blending and drying.

AMETEK Westchester Plastics also has plans in place for 2012 to upgrade and lengthen another existing 92mm 9 Barrel Coperion Super Compounder to an 11 Barrel machine with similar downstream components as on the recently commissioned lines.  This upgrade is scheduled for completion during the second quarter of 2012.

Westchester Plastics is a unit of AMETEK, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange-listed company and a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with annual sales of $3.0 billion. For additional information, contact Glenn Raspberry at AMETEK Chemical Products/Westchester Plastics, 42 Mountain Avenue, Nesquehoning, PA 18240 USA. Phone: 610-442-4951. Fax: 570-645-6959 Web site: www.ametek-westchesterplas.com

Main Image: