Collin Lab & Pilot Solutions (Maitenbeth / Germany; www.collin-solutions.com), a manufacturer of pilot and laboratory lines for plastics convertors, has created a line to manufacture protective shield films for items such as visors to be supplied to the European medical sector. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, it was assembled quickly in the company’s technical centre and consists of an extruder, slot die and calender with winder. The machine is set up to calender PET films with a thickness from 250-450 μm but can produce thinner or thicker films as well as cast films. It can also perform extrusion coating of non-woven fabrics for hygiene and medical products.

Collin said networks are forming between equipment, machinery and material manufacturers to quickly devise lines that produce the personal protective equipment, ventilator components and other essential products urgently needed by the medical sector. For this line, Collin also had support for producing the films from its network of partners including Next Generation Recycling (NGR, Feldkirchen / Austria; www.ngr-world.com), PET producer Indorama Ventures (Bangkok / Thailand; www.indoramaventures.com), auxiliary equipment supplier Piovan (Santa Maria di Sala / Italy; www.piovan.com) and adhesive products maker Tape-Team (Unterschleissheim / Germany; www.tape-team.de).

Friedrich Kastner, CEO and managing partner at Collin, said the line can use PET flake made from recycled bottles that are reprocessed and decontaminated using a liquid state polycondensation (LSP) process from Next Generation Recycling. “Due to our core competencies we were in a position to assemble a production line very quickly,” Kastner said.