After winning a contract to supply agricultural silage sheeting in Australia, British Polythene Industries has started blowing enormous bubbles at its North Ayrshire plant at Ardeer as part of the manufacturing process of turning polymers into polythene.
BPI's Visqueen division is the only manufacturer of silage sheeting in the UK and the Ardeer plant contains one of just three extruders of its size and capacity in the world, the others being in China and the US.
The recently-installed extruder is almost 50 metres high, requiring operators to use the extruder’s own passenger lift to get around the machine. It is the largest and most technologically advanced polythene extruder in Europe and is capable of producing 35 tonnes of polythene a day.
The 20-metre diameter of the bubble is necessary to produce the extra wide five-layer polythene needed for agricultural silage sheeting, which is used to store harvested hay as well as other agricultural and horticultural products.
“It is no easy feat to blow a 20m diameter bubble and this is something we have become exceptionally skilled at our site in Ardeer,” says BPI Visqueen’s marketing manager Aaron McIvor.
“Blowing a bubble of that size requires a refined level of technical skill and experience that only our most experienced operators possess. To that end we have invested in the training and development of staff operating this extruder to ensure that output is of the highest quality.”
“The extra wide formats that the extruder is capable of producing enables us to target markets where demand for large scale silage sheeting is the norm. This means that we are the one of few manufacturers worldwide who can supply markets which demand large format silage sheeting.”
Earlier this year BPI announced it would be investing £5 million upgrading the Ardeer plant – where around 200 people are employed – after reporting a 20 per cent rise in profits.
BPI employs 350 of its 2,200 staff in Scotland and is headquartered in Greenock.
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