Next Generation Films adds quality with Battenfeld Gloucester winders

Next Generation Films Inc. bills itself as "America's fastest-growing coex film company." And for good reason. Since operations began in 1994, Next Generation, of Lexington, Ohio, has made a name for itself in the technically demanding business of high-end and specialty blown films. The company started with three coextrusion lines. Next Generation now has seven lines running 24/7 and two more slated for installation. Sales are projected to surpass $60 million in 2006, says owner David Frecka, triple what they were just four years ago. A lot has changed for Next Generation Films since its founding, but one feature stayed the same: its preference for winders from Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc., a specialist in the design and manufacture of machinery and dies for film and sheet production. Next Generation has specified Battenfeld Gloucester's model 1008D winder on four blown film lines - including two of its three original lines - with another on a line newly added in 2006. The reasons Next Generation prefers Battenfeld Gloucester winders are simple. "The 1008 winders are robust, accurate and extremely reliable," Frecka says. "They are easier to operate than competitive winders, and they wind better-quality rolls than anything else in the market." The model 1008D is a dual-turret center winder designed to handle rolls of up to 30 inches (762mm.) in diameter. It features an Allen Bradley programmable logic controller with touchscreen control and recipe storage for different products and materials. Next Generation's facility houses several widths of 1008D winders to accommodate their customers' needs. The only option Frecka has ever specified is swing-out shafts on an 84-inch unit currently in use. The shafts improve the handling of rolls that are less than 10 inches (254 mm.) in diameter. "An operator can easily swing the shaft out and slide the rolls off." Everything else on the winders is standard. Next Generation coextrudes a range of materials, mostly polyethylenes. These include metallocenes, low-density, linear-low-density and high-densty grades, and ultra-high-molecular-weight PE. The company supplies films for such markets as food packaging, protective and courier packaging, automotive and manufactured housing. Next Generation also prints and converts films it makes into different types of bags on eight lines, each of which is a Battenfeld Gloucester model 418HE bag-making machine. The 418HE is a versatile and established converting machine. A shuttle system with a speed-mating feature, it can be used inline or in standalone operation. The model 418HE does bottom- or side-sealed bags and handles single or multiple webs. It can be equipped with a 4-axis servo control. In a business where every stage of processing is critical to film quality, the accuracy and repeatability of a winder is key to assuring that high-performance films achieve all their properties. For this reason Battenfeld Gloucester will continue to be the source of winders for Next Generation Films. "The 1008 winders are a great investment," Frecka says. "They're workhorses and we intend to keep buying them." (Press Release)