Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) manufacturer United Soft Plastics (USP) has opened a ten million pound (4,535 tonnes) production facility in Houston, USA, in response to strong market demand for its TPE products.
The 20,000 sq ft plant complements USP’s existing facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and produces TPE materials for markets including food packaging, consumer, medical and industrial markets. It will run on a twin-screw extrusion system from KraussMaffei Berstorff with an underwater pelletiser from Nordson.
“This investment reaffirms our continued commitment to the engineering TPE plastics market in the US, Mexico, and also outside of the Americas,” said Benedict Herbst, executive vice president of USP. “The expansion of our manufacturing assets will play a key role in meeting the application development needs of our customers and further unlock new business opportunities and maintain our superior customer response time.”
Herbst said the new plant represents a strategic market repositioning, which enables USP to move closer to raw material hubs and high-volume customer accounts in Mexico, the Southwest US and Asia.