Airtech Advanced Materials Group announces the building of one of the largest extruders of its type

Airtech will be able to make wider vacuum bagging films and increase capacity greatly. With such growth in the large composite aircrafts parts, the need for wider vacuum bagging film is essential. The scope of such a project is great and requires a lot of patience. The photo shows one of the tallest cranes available on site, at the Airtechcorporate headquarters in Huntington Beach, California. The other photo shows a major section of the roof that had to be removed so the crane can move the building and extruder parts up and in place for assembly. "This is the largest capital outlay we have ever done in our 35 year history, for a piece of equipment. The industry needs it, so we built it!"-Jeff Dahlgren, President/CEO.

For super large composite parts, heat seaming of the vacuum bag to these large sizes is required. The current films have a width limit and therefore many costly heat seams are needed. With wider film, less heat seams will be needed, making the final product safer and less expensive. The new machine will also add needed capacity to keep up with the many aerospace programs that we'll see large rate increases next year. "We will be ready to meet any supply and demand issue our customers will have, we will not be a "bottleneck" due to lack of capacity."–John Maligie, Sr. Vice President of Manufacturing. "As the world's largest manufacturer of vacuum bagging materials, many worldwide customers count on us for quality and consistent supply. It is a great responsibility and one we will be able to control with this new equipment."–Chad Fester, Sr. Vice President of Sales and Business Development. Completion is expected this summer along with the introduction of new products associated with this new extruder.