Applications watch

Elk Grove Village, IL-based Clear Lam Packaging, Inc., a converter of specialty flexible and rigid-plastic packaging for perishable goods, held a grand opening May 17 for its new plant in Nanjing, China. A wholly owned subsidiary, Clear Lam China presently produces thermoformed containers; specialty film making is expected to start up next month. The facility will employ about 350 people.

Water-soluble films maker MonoSol LLC purchases a 15-acre industrial greenfield site in La Porte, IN, to expand manufacturing capacity to meet expected global demand for its products. It plans to build an $11-million facility with high-tech film production lines and pilot-testing laboratories. Says MonoSol president P. Scott Bening, “Products manufactured in the new facility will include those made from renewable biopolymer and repulpable materials, which help to reduce overall packaging waste.”

Web Processing Services LLC, a joint venture of Radiant Energy Systems and Converting Concepts Corp., opens a new pilot-coating laboratory and toll-manufacturing facility in Hawthorne, NJ. It features a 26-in. state-of-the-art, water-based coating line offering coating, drying, curing, laminating, printing on various substrates and annealing of plastic films. Product development and testing via various coating methods are available.