ABA Plastic Film Blowing Machine

   Producing T-shirt bags with ABA blown film machine significantly reduces cost

In some markets such as Turkey, Thailand and Vietnam where T-shirt bag production has become extremely competitive, film producers are now replacing their existing mono layer extruders with ABA blown film machine, mainly to save production cost. One of the biggest T-shirt bag producers in Vietnam has already replaced half of its mono layer machine with ABA blown film machine in the past 3 years to stay competitive in the local market.

The ABA blown film machine consists of two extruders, normally of two different sizes. The most common ones today are the combination of a 45mm screw diameter together with a 55mm for T-shirt bag production. For garbage bags, normally a 55mm screw diameter with a bigger 65mm is used.

In the A-A outer layer, normally 20% of CaCO3 is used, with some additional of color masterbatch, LLDPE and a larger percentage of HDPE. The B layer can be used with larger percentage of CaCO3 with HDPE raw material. In-house recycled pellets can also be used to the mixture.

Besides reducing amount of raw material, another advantage of ABA blown film machine is that the produced 3 layer film is 30% stronger than mono layer. The ABA blown film machine is also more economic comparing to an ABC layer machine as it has one extruder less.

POLYSTAR, a Taiwanese manufacturer of ABA blown film machine has shifted its main focus onto re-engineering ABA technology because it has noticed this big shift in market trend in many countries where it exports to.

In Russia, mono layer market is almost dead for POLYSTAR, despite it used to sell at least 50 mono layer machines there annually. 90% of what POLYSTAR sold to Russia since 2010 has been ABA blown film machine. One of the leading bag producers in St. Petersburg with 60 sets POLYSTAR mono layer machine has also been active in upgrading their machines to ABA blown film machine.

POLYSTAR has recently installed 22 sets of mono layer machines in Yangon, Myanmar in a newly-established film production factory. However, this type of set up is only in where labor cost is still low. In markets where labor cost is higher and more competitions exist, producers must find a way to lower their production cost to increase profit margin.

The ABA blown film machine offers more flexibility on film formula. The three layer film is 30% stronger than mono layer film, and production cost can be saved up to 50%. Based on the unique screw design, up to 60% CaCo3 can be added to machine with excellent mixing effect.

By using the gravimetric 4 components dosing unit, operator is capable to control the accuracy of formula when mixing main material resins (either virgin or recycled) together with additives, fillers, and masterbatches.