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EVAL Company of America Expands Production Capacity for EVAL(R) Resins

Posted on: Friday, 29 September 2006, 12:00 CDT

EVAL Company of America announced the construction of its EVAL EVOH expansion was successfully completed, increasing its nameplate capacity by 24,000 tons.

Considering the current extremely high energy and raw material costs, EVALCA is commissioning 50% of the increased capacity, 12,000 tons per year, with commercial operations to be fully on stream by the spring of 2007.

This expansion is a response to the growing worldwide demand for ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer resin (trade name is EVAL®).

"EVAL resins have so many benefits over materials like glass, steel and other plastics that it's not surprising how aggressively demand has grown. We recently built a new R&D center to support this growth, in addition to this production expansion," states Dr. Nobuya Tomita, President of EVALCA.

Kuraray (parent of EVALCA) was first in the world to develop and commercialize the high-performance resin EVAL in 1972, which has the highest gas impermeability of any plastic (approximately 10,000 times that of polyethylene). This superior gas barrier property makes EVAL highly trusted as a food packaging material used to preserve the freshness of a product. EVAL keeps oxygen from migrating into a package, while simultaneously preventing aromas and flavors from migrating out of a package.

EVAL is an excellent barrier to fuel vapors as well, allowing it to be used in plastic fuel tanks for automobiles. The exceptional barrier properties of EVAL resins enable a tank manufacturer to produce lighter fuel tanks than steel, while at the same time maintaining very low evaporative emissions, ensuring compliance with strict fuel vapor emission regulations.

EVAL is also used in floor heating pipe systems, chemical bottles, fuel pipes, cosmetics, wallpaper, balloons and several other consumer and industrial applications that require barrier to a gas, good chemical resistance or durability.

Demand for this resin is rising at a rate of 10% or more per year. Growth is also predicted for Asia and other developing areas, where lifestyles and standards of living are on the rise.

About EVALCA

EVALCA is a subsidiary of Kuraray Co., Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan. EVALCA manufactures and markets ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) copolymer resins under the EVAL® trademark. EVAL resins are characterized by their outstanding gas barrier properties, resistance to solvents, chemicals and hydrocarbons and excellent barrier to odor and flavor permeation. These unique polymers are ideally suited for food, medical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, automotive, agricultural and industrial packaging applications.

Source: Business Wire

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