Film Products, Inc. in Bolingbrook, IL has been successfully competing in the metallizing business for 22 years. It continues to do so thanks to a versatile group of employees with a "whatever it takes" mindset. These metallizing experts have discovered evaporator boats that have vaporized the competition.

"We're very excited (about the boats)," said Joe Petruccelli, general manager, coating and metallizing division of Film Products. "They're a very good source for the metallizing industry."

Three months ago Film Products tested 18 Denka evaporator boats (www.denka.co.jp) from Ceramic Technologies (www.e-certech.com), which distributes the product in North and South America. The boats were installed on the company's 90-in. metallizer from Darly Custom Technology (www.darlytech.com), which typically metallizes 48-gauge polyester and 78-gauge polypropylene with aluminum from Alcoa Inc. (www.alcoa.com) for decorative applications. Petruccelli and his staff found that the boats wet out well, enabling them to start the metallizing process faster. "The faster you can have them wet out, the earlier you can run the machine," Petruccelli said.

Along with a quick start-up, the boats also ran well for a long period of time. According to Petruccelli, typical boats last long enough to metallize nine rolls of film each having 60,000 to 80,000 feet of film per roll. These boats usually had a large aluminum puddle on the surface for the first two rolls, but then the puddle would decrease in size until only a small stream would be present for the ninth roll.

The Denka boats, however, had consistently large aluminum puddles through more than nine rolls. "It's very consistent, and that's what we liked about it," Petruccelli said. "That makes the operator's life easy, and it makes a better product."

Denka engraves the top surface of the boat with patent-pending flow channels that spread the aluminum puddle out over the surface of the boat. This large puddle creates a larger aluminum vapor cloud, which leads to less laning or striping, Ceramic Technologies said. A larger puddle also cools the boat, which extends its life by maintaining a balanced temperature across the boat, eliminating spitting problems. According to Ceramic Technologies, test results at various companies show at least a 35- to 40-percent improvement in useful life.

"When your boats enable a user to produce more rolls per boat, that translates directly to the bottom line," said Jeff Epstein, Ceramic Technologies president. "Users are also finding that the Denka boats allow them to run the line at faster speeds, which increases their output, too."

Soon after the trial run, Film Products bought hundreds of boats and ran them on a regular basis. During Converting's visit, the metallizer was running an 80,000-ft roll of holographic film. "After running them on a regular weekly process, we found that the wet-out was good again, and the boats were really stable," Petruccelli said.

According to metallizer operators, they do not have to move the boats around constantly, change heat or wires in order to keep the boats productive. "We can basically set the heat and wiring in the morning and throughout the day (the boats) stay constant," Petruccelli said. "The uniformity is a lot easier to maintain with these boats than some of the other boats we've tried."

Currently Film Products runs a set of six to 18 boats, depending on the width of the web up to 82-in. wide, for 12 hours. Sometimes a set of boats is used for 18 hours without any problems. On an average day, operators metallize five to 10 rolls, each roll containing 80,000 feet of material. "Because we can run the boats for a longer period of time, it keeps our run costs down," Petruccelli said. "The boats also help our rejection rate stay phenomenally low."

Film Products, which supplies metallized, clear and coated film, also has a 61-in. coater from Preferred Systems, Inc., (now out of business) that it bought in 1997. The company coats some substrates with colorant. Its main product—unprinted polyester—is primarily used in food packaging, electrical insulation and package-printing applications. It supplies to a variety of markets in the US, Canada, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

As much as possible, Film Products tries to combine the capabilities of the two machines. "When we put the acrylic, water-based topcoat on the metallized side of the film, that's to protect the metal from the slitters or sheeters," Petruccelli said. "When we put it on the clear side, (other converters) can laminate to it or print on it. It just enhances the adhesion of the polyester to whatever substrate they're going to put on it."

After metallizing, coating or both, Film Products can slit the substrate down to whatever size the customer requires. The company has six slitters—two Conwebs, an 84- and 90-in.; three 62-in. slitters, a Dusenbery and two Lembos (now out of business); and a 20-in. slitter. Finished rolls are sent to other companies for further printing, bagmaking or converting.

Film Products continually relies on the experience of its employees, the "newest" one having been there eight years, to find the best way to produce quality products and efficiently use the machines. "Our metallizer is 12 years old, but we update it constantly," Petruccelli said. The coater is eight years old. But it's because of how long the company has had the machines and the people that have been working with these machines for so long that makes Film Products succeed. "We're always trying to find different venues for our products and services," he said.