Solutions

Extrusion Coating

Gloucester Engineering offers solutions for the Extrusion Coating industry in partnership with Polytype.

Gloucester Engineering and Polytype both offer a high level of technology, and this provides an important advantage to processors who want the benefits of high performance extrusion and control systems for high speed converting lines. Extrusion coating is done at high temperature levels, and that combined with the need to maintain stability from the die face to the nip dictates exceptionally high melt homogeneity and stability. Gloucester Contracool Extruders are well proven in such demanding applications, and the company has developed a range of screw designs specific to the materials used for extrusion coating. Though most extrusion coating is done with LDPE and copolymers, there is growing use of other materials such as LLDPE, custom blends, metallocene copolymers, and barrier materials including EVOH and polyester. Gloucester has the technology for all of these materials and more, as well as the engineering experience to provide seamless integration within the POLYCOAT line.

A typical Gloucester Engineering extrusion coating system in a POLYCOAT line will consist of Contracool extruders, and an extrusion carriage with fiber optic network connection to the Control System. Our process-specific Controls have a software package designed just for extrusion coating that includes temperature and speed control and monitoring, thickness control, recipe storage, process data trending, and management information. For instance, it manages the thickness gauging system that measures the incoming substrate and the coated substrate profiles, and then performs a same-spot calculation whose results are used to control extruder output and thickness uniformity.

Further assurance of high melt quality comes from the Gloucester Engineering gravimetric feeding, blending, and vacuum loading systems for the incoming raw material. They, too, are integrated and controlled through the System. The entire extrusion coating system is supported by an experienced engineering and service team to facilitate a smooth installation and startup, as well as continuing operation. The basic stability and durability of the Gloucester Engineering equipment assures many years of consistent high quality and high output.

Cloeren Incorporated is our preferred supplier for adapters, feed blocks and extrusion coating dies for the POLYCOAT lines.  Cloeren is the world's leading supplier of co extrusion feed blocks and dies and offers the best technology for coating applications including vane type feed blocks for copolymers and barrier materials, automatic dies, and sophisticated deckling systems with edge bead reduction.

Polytype and Gloucester Engineering maintain well-equipped technical centers where customers can test new equipment and technologies, as well as evaluate new projects.