Davis-Standard expands regional focus

Davis-Standard, LLC promoted recent developments at CHINAPLAS 2018. The company’s acquisition of Maillefer, the company’s strengths in Suzhou, expanded dsX flex-pack™ technology for extrusion coating, and new stretch film capabilities were all highlighted at Davis-Standard’s presence in China’s biggest exhibition for the plastics industry. 

 

Starting with the acquisition of Maillefer in 2017, Davis-Standard has expanded its offering in wire and cable, pipe and tube equipment with additional facilities in Finland and Switzerland able to serve custoemrs around the world, including China. The Maillefer facility complements Davis-Standard’s presence in China with Davis-Standard (Suzhou) Plastics Packaging Machinery, Co., Ltd, the company’s production plant in China which offers equipment for FPVC medical tubing and co-extrusion applications as well as assembly of electrical control panels, extruders and gearcases.

 

According to Sekaran Murugaiah, Vice President, Business Development Asia Pacific: “China contributes about 45% of our global sales and this shows how important this market it. Moreover, China as a market is highly dynamic – with customers always on the lookout for newer technologies and this makes this market grow faster as compared with countries in other regions.” 

 

Mr. Sekaran Murugaiah, Vice President, Business Development Asia Pacific, Davis-Standard LLC  

 

Davis-Standard presented its MEDD extruder (Medical Extruder Direct Drive)  in response to Asia’s strong medical and packaging segments. Applications include microbore tubing, multi-lumen and catheter tubing, endotracheal and tracheotomy tubing, radio opaque tubing, bubble tubing, taper tubing, pipette tubing and multi-layer tubing, amongst others.  The MEDD is specifically engineered for tight tolerance applications due to its compact design, energy efficiency and materials versatility. The extruder features linear movement, a replacement feedsection liner, interchangeable barrel assemblies and Windows®-based control system.  Davis-Standard’s R&D laboratory in Suzhou is equipped with technology such as the MEDD extruder  to test a range of rigid and flexible products as well as FPVC tubing for IV & fluid delivery. 

 

The flexible packaging sector is another recipient of Davis-Standard’s innovation. “Expansion is part of our strategy with the development of a new extrusion system specifically for customers in Asia. We see flexible packaging market, especially for the food industry, on the rise with big global converters located in Asia posting huge demands,” Mr. Murugaiah added.  

 

Davis-Standard highlighted its latest dsX flex-pack™ model, the 300S, which is a single station extrusion and laminating line designed specifically for the Asian flexible packaging market. It is a collaboration between Davis-Standard’s teams in the U.S., Germany and China, addressing the pricing, machine footprint, speeds and output, and shorter runs demanded by converters. Davis-Standard is also engineering a tandem configuration of this machine called the dsX flex-pack™ 300T. The company plans to have its first dsX flex-pack™ 300S available for demonstration in Suzhou by end of third quarter 2018. 

 

For stretch film applications, Davis-Standard promoted a new stretch film line equipped with a DS S3 winder. Quality control, versatility and efficiency are hallmarks of this technology. The line offers a compact machine arrangement, ease of servicing, excellent profile control, consistent roll quality and an intuitive control package. It is engineered for producing thin films from 31-to 51-gauge (7.8µ to 13µ) at high speeds. The side-by-side DS S3 overlapping winder is essential to this capability, enabling maximum slit widths for hand-wrap, machine-wrap and jumbo rolls. This winder also makes it possible for converters to support multiple market segments on one winder. All features are advantageous for high-grade film operations.