The making of a new film construction is not a simple process. For the converter, trying to help a prospective customer with a new film may include as much information gathering and hand-holding as it does actual R&D work.

NEX (New England Extrusion, Inc.), Turners Falls, MA, takes pride in its technical support capabilities. Its technical department has combined experience of well over 50 years with involvement in many film-manufacturing technologies.

"While our expertise is in the development and manufacture of blown polyethylene films, we also have a breadth of knowledge in other types of polymers used in flexible packaging, along with an understanding of the techniques to produce such films," says Melissa Gardiner, marketing manager of NEX. "This offers us a wide-ranging material background on which to base our new product development."

NEX says a critical facet of its technical support is the long-term relationships it has established with its resin and additive suppliers. Its primary suppliers are the top tier polyethylene producers, the technology leaders and the innovators when it comes to superior materials.

"Our excellent reputation among these companies has allowed NEX to become a beta-test site for many of the newest resins being introduced to the industry," says Gardiner. "This 'first look' at new technology ensures that we stay ahead of the competitive curve, and it has given us the ability to introduce new ideas to our customers allowing them to, in turn, stay ahead of their competition."

Besides focusing on long-term supplier relationships, NEX also works hard to keep up with current additive technology and to have a firm understanding of the functionality and interaction of many unique additive systems. The NEX technical team has the ability to safely incorporate many different types of materials into packaging films to provide further customization and new packaging solutions.

NEX's product development engineers are given the full support of its in-house analytical laboratory, which is unusual for a blown-film manufacturer. This analytical laboratory features a fine array of testing equipment, giving NEX the capabilities to break down and reverse-engineer materials or to improve on competitive products to meet customer expectations. "By having these capabilities in-house, our turnaround time is kept short to assist us in providing the most rapid response to even the most demanding development opportunity," Gardiner says.

Over the years, NEX has invested a significant amount of money in on-site test equipment for both of its manufacturing facilities. The Turners Falls, MA, facility houses an analytical laboratory designed for both physical and chemical composition testing. "The investment in such equipment is evidence of our commitment to providing the best possible service in all areas of our business, including analysis work," says Gardiner.

Not every job requested by a customer will run smoothly, so there will always be challenges and obstacles to overcome. For NEX Gardiner says, "Every different application poses a new challenge. It may be a typical coffee pouch, but because every customer is different and the end users are unique, we often custom-design products to suit the individual application's requirements."

NEX says one of the main challenges it encounters is lack of, or inaccurate, information exchange. For NEX to make the proper film recommendations, many questions need to be answered (see list on page 38). The answers to those questions help to guide the product development team. NEX says, often customers don't understand why they are being asked so many questions, but it can make the difference between a successful trial and a failure.

"To complicate matters further, often times our customers don't even have the answers that we are looking for because the end users have not been as forthcoming with information as they could be," says Gardiner. For a film maker to design the best package, the more information available, the better, the company says.