New WPC Materials Producer Up and Running

Some 18 months in the making, Polymera Inc. last month announced that its 160,000 ft² production plant is officially open for business, with annual capacity for 60 million lb of wood/plastics composite (WPC) compounds. The Hebron, Ohio, plant houses $11 million worth of fully automated technology for producing natural-fiber polymer compounds in HDPE, PVC, PP, and others. “Polymera is addressing a need for WPC compounds that simply has not been available in the industry,” states Herb Hutchison, Polymera’s v.p. (pictured, left, with partner Maan Said). “Our objective is to help extrusion, injection molding, and compression molding processors that would like to enter the WPC market but cannot justify the very large investment in upstream blending and materials-handling systems.” Polymera offers to provide technology know-how in addition to materials, Hutchison added.

Polymera’s WPC formulations are engineered for both interior and exterior uses and are targeted at markets beyond the popular fence and decking applications. “Furniture and automotive, among many others, have not been tapped at all in North America,” Hutchison states.

The plant houses three 86-mm, conical twin-screw extruders from Milacron LLC, Batavia, Ohio, which Polymera will use as a bridge to a customer’s own manufacturing process or for customer disaster recovery.
(740) 527-2069 • polymera.com