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Honeywell
Resins And Chemicals Breaks Ground On New Resin Manufacturing Line In
Virginia
State-of-the-art
production line will be only North American source of key food packaging
resins
MORRIS
TOWNSHIP, N.J., June 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Honeywell (NYSE: HON) Resins
and Chemicals announced today that it has broken ground on its new nylon
resins production line at its Chesterfield, Va., manufacturing facility.
The
new production line at Honeywell's Chesterfield, Va., plant will be the
only North American source of key food packaging resins.
The
new production line can produce multiple grades of Honeywell Aegis® nylon
6 resins, as well as copolymer nylon 6/6.6 resins, both of which are used
in food packaging films and other applications. When the line starts up in
the fourth quarter of 2015, Honeywell's Chesterfield facility will become
the first and only North American supplier of both resins.
Honeywell
announced in April 2014 its plans to build the new line, which will expand
the manufacturing capacity of the Chesterfield facility by 40,000 metric
tons to 200,000 metric tons per year.
"Honeywell
has been committed to the nylon market for more than 60 years, and we are
investing in expanding our capabilities and developing new
technologies," said Erin Kane, vice president and general manager of
Honeywell Resins and Chemicals. "Our position as the only
fully-integrated North American manufacturer of both nylon 6 and copolymer
nylon 6/6.6 will provide film manufacturers with a more secure resin
supply than they have today."
Approximately
10 billion pounds of food packaging film is produced in North America
annually, and the use of nylon films on the continent is growing at a
compound annual growth rate of 4.5 percent, according to Freedonia Group,
a business research company.
The
expansion will also showcase technologies developed by other Honeywell
businesses, including Experion® PKS distributed process control systems
from Honeywell Process Solutions.
Nylon
packaging films made with Aegis® resins provide excellent barrier
properties to oxygen, helping to retain flavor and maintain product
freshness. In addition to food packaging films, Aegis resins are used in
automotive, consumer and industrial applications spanning from carpeting
and fishnet to plastic parts. Honeywell Resins and Chemicals also
manufactures nylon films under the Aegis and Capran® brands for use in
food packaging, as well as industrial applications ranging from wind
turbine blades to aerospace components.
Through
its nylon manufacturing operations, Honeywell Resins and Chemicals
produces many chemical intermediates, including phenol, Nadone®
cyclohexanone, Naxol® cyclohexanol, acetone and caprolactam. The business
also manufactures Sulf-N® ammonium sulfate fertilizer, a co-product of
caprolactam production. Honeywell's plant in Hopewell, Va., with a
capacity of 350,000 metric tons of caprolactam per year, is one of the
world's largest caprolactam and ammonium sulfate plants.
In
addition to manufacturing, the business also conducts nylon-related
research and development at technology centers in New Jersey and Virginia,
where it operates laboratory-scale polymer reactors and blown film
equipment, as well as in Shanghai, China, where the business has extensive
analytical capabilities for resin development.