|  | EXXONMOBIL CHEMICAL FILMS: NEW DEVELOPMENTS SHOW COMMITMENT TO THE PACKAGING INDUSTRY
ExxonMobil highlights several initiatives which underline its continued commitment to the packaging industry, from new capital assets to innovative new products and solutions to support the increasing demands of the industry.
Since the merge between Exxon and Mobil in late 1999, the company has continued to actively grow its business. Investments in new assets have been a major part of this growth, with 2 new state-of-the-art orienters, 3 new metallisers and 1 new coater.
In Europe specifically, these investments comprise a new 10 metre orienter in Brindisi (Italy) in 2002, as well as two new metallisers at the same plant scheduled to come on stream by the end of 2004. These assets will form part of the company’s plans to become best in class for high-barrier metallised films. A new state of the art coater is also currently being installed in the company’s Virton plant, and is scheduled to start up in 2004.
Expanding Coating Capacity
The coater is 50 percent faster, than previous machines available on the market and allows for variable width coating. It will increase the company’s European coating capacity by 35 % and will be used notably to reinforce its label OPP business.
However, ExxonMobil also intends to use the new coater to apply coatings on a wide variety of different substrates, thereby applying its unique coating knowledge and technology to the coating of other materials, notably PET, OPA and PE.
This new investment will further strengthen the company’s market presence as leading supplier of coated films for versatile packaging solutions and will enable ExxonMobil to provide its customers with products and services well beyond its current core products.
NEW! Surfinex Technology Developed For High-Speed Presses With Exxonmobil
A new technology, referred to as “Surfinex”, has been developed by ExxonMobil with the specific changing needs of the converting industry (flexo and gravure) in mind. The Films Business fully recognises that the increasing speeds of new printing presses will require different properties from OPP films. Surfinex technology aims to adapt ExxonMobil’s uncoated films to the demanding printing process of the future.
Various problems such as scumming and staining in gravure printing, lack of surface adhesion and poor overall print quality are encountered more and more on demanding high-speed machines.
The new technology provides major improvements in green ink adhesion, mainly with NC/PU ink formulations as well as better surface wettability and overall improved printability. Moreover, when printing via rotogravure, you can say goodbye to staining and greatly reduce scumming.
Later this year Surfinex will be applied to those OPPalyte films that usually run on high-speed presses, often in combination with cold seal. These films are OPPalyte MW247 and MH247.
The possibility of applying the new Surfinex technology to other ExxonMobil films is also currently being investigate, including the development of new coatings for enhanced printability.
Enhancing the Value of Packaging as a Brand Communication Channel – PacVantage™
Pacvantage is a suite of internet and colour management technologies designed to reduce packaging leadtime, increase delivery reliability and enhance manufacturing efficiency.
In 2003 we have piloted and refined the technology developed. In 2004, we are commercialising this technology and building a strategic network of companies.
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