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Recycled Polypropylene Success Leads to an EcoLon^® Success Story

Recycled Polypropylene Success Leads to an EcoLon™ Success Story

Precision Southeast Inc., (PSI), Marion SC, was one of the first customers to use Wellman’s EcoLon^® Polypropylene (made from recycled carpet) for a gun stock application. Brett Byers, the plant Manager, was delighted at how well the product ran as well as the cost savings. Recently Brett was having a lot of problems running a new program of filter housings that the current supplier could not resolve resulting in down time and slow run rates. So Brett asked Bob Dastou from Wellman to run lab tests on the problematic resin. Tests showed that none of the samples met PSI’s spec, and all contained poly pro and other contaminants. Bob recommended PS I try EcoLon^® MRGF1619-BK3 which had a similar shrink to their current product, and therefore would likely run well in existing tools, and would have better mechanical properties than the current product spec. With minor tool adjustments, PSI was soon making acceptable parts in the large filter housing.

The week after we completed PPAP on the large filter housing, PSI’s customer had reported field failures on another filter housing. The customer wanted PSI to make the switch to EcoLon^® MRGF1619-BK3 ASAP. Marion had to shut down their production line. Wellman operations shuffled the plant schedule and rushed material to Marion for parts to be molded and hand carried to their customer in order to expedite PPAP. EcoLon^® MRGF1619-BK3 passed all of the testing and 20,000 pounds were rushed to Marion to resume production.

PSI and their customer then came to Wellman’s operations so they could see for themselves our 600 acre campus, 2million square feet under roof, proprietary process and procedures, state of the art lab and employee’s commitment to quality and customer service. PSI and their customer came away with a rich understanding of what enables Wellman to insure the kind of consistent quality that they require. Their customer is reportedly in the process of writing a spec around our EcoLon^® MRGF1619-BK3 for future products. PSI, their customer and Wellman will all share in the economic benefits, while improving the environment and reducing our country’s dependence on foreign oil. We thank PSI for their efforts in creating this great EcoLon^® Success Story.