Clariant announces plant expansion at Pharmapack

At this year’s Pharmapack Europe, specialty chemicals company Clariant, announced that it will expand its plant in Lewiston, ME, and install a new compounding line to help meet growing demand for pre-coloured medical plastic compounds., under the Mevopur brand name.

Clariant’s Mevopur materials are used for applications in medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging, where strict regulations on materials and change control apply. The company’s Lewiston plant is one of three global sites designed and operated to produce materials used in medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging.

The new compounding line will be able to produce larger batch sizes with production focusing on materials such as polyolefins, specialty resins, cyclic olefins and more. The expansion will also allow the site to improve process-flow and material-handling.

Steve Duckworth, head of global segment healthcare polymer solutions said: “Over the last five years Clariant has pioneered the development of masterbatches for the healthcare sector. These are colour and additive concentrates that are added to natural polymers during moulding or extrusion of finished products. However, in some cases, medical processors may prefer to use a pre-coloured compound instead, perhaps for ease of handling or because of technical difficulties in the moulding or extrusion process. And yet, they have the same need for Controlled, Consistent and Compliant materials.”

The company state that the new capacity complements equipment and plant investments aimed at compounding engineering resins and high-temperature polymers.