Argotec, Inc., announced on 22 July 2009 the restructuring of its thermoplastic polyurethane business. President and chief executive officer of the US-based manufacturer of TPU optical interlayer film…
Argotec, Inc., announced on 22 July 2009 the restructuring of its thermoplastic polyurethane business. President and chief executive officer of the US-based manufacturer of TPU optical interlayer films, Bruce Wilby, stated, Instead of focussing just on products we can make and market, we are concentrating on better matching our film extrusion capabilities, technical expertise and resources with the applications of our customers – strength to strength. And that is especially the case with customers who use our TPU optical interlayer glass lamination films. Aliphatic polyurethane film is typically used in glass lamination applications where polyvinyl butyral (PVB) or interlayer films made from other polymers cannot meet the performance specifications of the application. (For instance, TPU interlayer films will not degrade polycarbonate when bonded with glass for bullet-resistant glazing, as is the case with PVB; nor does TPU cause distortion [birefringence] on bent glass composites.) Our customers recognize Argotec as providing the cleanest, highest quality TPU films available in the industry today, Wilby stated. They frequently come to us looking for solutions to design challenges that commodity film producers often say are impossible, declared Wilby. But that“s our bread and butter. It has been since the company was founded in 1988 and we shipped our very first roll of aliphatic TPU film the next year. Describing how they work with customers, he explained, Our plastics engineers interact closely with the customer“s design engineers to develop a film with the physical properties and surface finish characteristics needed to meet the parameters of the application. Wilby continued, Our engineers are then made available to work with the production engineers at the customer“s location to ensure that our films perform properly in their fabrication and manufacturing processes. Steve Wolkenbreit, company co-founder and co-chairman, added: From the beginning it has been our philosophy to listen to the customer, stay focused on problem solving, and keep technical service as the number one priority. That hasn“t changed. What has changed is the way we integrate groups of like products and resources. This allows us to better approach customer challenges from an application-oriented perspective that is structured around our six core markets. In addition to its ArgoBond brand of optical interlayer films and edge seal tapes for laminated glass applications, the company has six other market-driven product offerings: ArgoGuard, ArgoMed, ArgoGraph, ArgoFlex, OmniFlex and ArgoThane. Further describing this new configuration, Wilby explained that Argotec asked its customers and development partners what they needed most in a film supplier. Their answer was clear, he stated. They wanted a partner willing to invest the time and resources to help make them successful. He added, We feel that the investments we have made in capital equipment, facilities and people, along with restructuring our business in a way that allows us to more effectively focus those resources on solving the customers“ design and production challenges, is a clear answer to that call. Argotec is a privately-held company that extrudes custom-engineered, high-performance, polyurethane film and sheet in thicknesses ranging from 0.2 to 125 mils, and in widths up to 86 inches. In addition to flat-die, cast-on-carrier and blown-film-extrusion technologies, the company also has expertise in extrusion coating, multi-layer constructions, and closed-cell polyurethane foam sheet extrusion. Argotec sells its products globally, primarily to glass laminators, film converters and adhesive coaters, plastics fabricators and textile laminators, as well as directly to finished goods manufacturers.