VarDAR Moves to Bigger Facility in U.K.

VarDAR systems Ltd, the manufacturers of the award-winning dual- directional flow air ring, has recently moved to a larger manufacturing facility in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in the U.K.

In a statement, the company said it needed to expand to meet increasing demand and to accomodat future product development.

The new facility will have more production space for the systems under construction, and will enable VarDAR to bring in-house many of the processes previously outsourced, the company says. Among other things, VarDAR has made investments in powder coating technology and increased 3D printing capacity.

VarDAR’s tower-mounted Variable Diameter Air Ring is designed to increase productivity of the blown film process by adding additional cooling above the frost line. This reduces such effects as blocking, which occurs when the inside surface of the bubble sticks to itself at the nip during collapsing, making it nearly impossible to open. It also provides reduced tackiness of the bubble’s outer surface when still hot.

In  2022, the novel product won the The Horners’ Award for Plastics Innovation and Design. The award is one of the longest-running plastics awards in the world, and is jointly run by the British Plastics Federation and the Worshipful Company of Horners, a livery company.

VarDAR’s latest new product offering is a web-inspection systems for blown film. Called VarDAR Vision and situated before the winder, the system consists of a dual camera 1600-mm transmission system.

As the collapsed film travels down the tower to the winder, it runs over an ultra-high intensity light source that shines through the film, which are being monitored by cameras above. By using optical transmission technology, Vardar Vision can pick up any light-blocking defects or transmitting light in the film being produced. It is used for detecting defects such as gels, unmelts, contaminations, holes, etc, on transparent and semi-transparent films.

VarDAR Vision is designed to provide 100% inspection and monitoring of the blown film, generate data, provide warning of any film defects and plot the exact location that can cause rejection or customer dissatisfaction. By differentiating and distinguishing the problems online instead of in the lab, it is said to provide an earlier, quicker and more economical way of identifying defects and gather data, and store the information of any issues in real time, which enables customers to effectively minimize waste and optimizes production.

In addition to having its own product line, VarDAR Systems is the U.K. representatives for Hosokawa Alpine blown film systems.