Milliken & Company expands its technical service offering in Europe

To support its further growth plans, Milliken & Company recently commissioned a state-of-the-art compounding line for its European applications lab in Gent (Belgium). The new investment covers the installation of a fully equipped Leistritz twin-screw extruder with Brabender gravimetric feeding technology and Rieter strand pelletizing unit. Besides one main feeder and one flex-wall feeder, the twin-screw extruder has also a high-accuracy additive feeder. In addition, the side-feeding capability will enable the production of highly filled polymer compounds (up to 70 %wt). The line has an output of about 40 kg/hour allowing the production of substantial pilot batch quantities.

“This extension of our technical service offering simply underlines the company’s commitment to bring value to the entire supply chain”, says Mark Boelens, Milliken & Company’s technical director in Europe. “In addition to our own R&D community, both our direct customers and downstream collaboration partners have access to this equipment that will help to speed up developments and introduction to market”, he continues.

The versatile set-up of the brand new compounding line allows the incorporation of Milliken & Company’s additives technologies (clarifiers, nucleators, antimicrobial agents, UV absorbers) in a broad range of polymer materials (PP, PE, PA, PS), covering a wide scope of end-use applications (automotive, packaging, housewares, appliances, and more).