Dugdale invests for extrusion customers
West Yorkshire based Dugdale Ltd reports current high demand from the PVC extrusion industry with customers ordering new and customised grades of PVC compound for profile and pipe production.
Dugdale currently formulates an average of 50 new PVC compounds per month and the extrusion market is key. Colour matching, meeting customer property requests and price pressures plus legislative changes are the predominant reasons for the creation of new business including the need for enhanced weathering, an up lift in physical properties, anti-microbial or anti-fungal requirements, and surface finish modification.
Dugdale's new product development team, led by Dr Jeff Ryan, uses the company's testing and laboratory facilities to first prove the new materials, shipping samples to customers for approval prior to progressing the new grades to initial trialling and then full production. From concept to full approval, each stage of the development and technical service process is focussed at delivering the requirements of the end user.
The company's commitment to customer service and to niche applications sees it adopting an open approach to all matters of extrusion product development. Versatile manufacturing is key and the versatility of the plant means that it is set up to give maximum capability regarding response times.
Dugdale is supporting this growth in business with significant capital investment. A spend of over £2 million is forecast by the year end. These investments include new laboratory facilities, the installation of a silo, securing new warehousing, and the installation of additional mixing and compounding equipment.
The building trade continues to help fuel the compounder's growth: Working in partnership with major UK building product manufacturers over the past 12 months, Dugdale has, for example, created and achieved approvals for enhanced Calcium Organic based compounds marketed under its Ducavin PVC brand name.
Andy Tombs, Business Development Manager, says that 'the extrusion sector and its markets are extremely important to Dugdale and to our future growth. We will continue to commit resource to our customers and invest internally in order to further improve our added value and service.
'
