Exopack Advanced Coatings

Infobox Company
company_name = Exopack Advanced Coatings
company_
company_type = Private
foundation = August 6, 2007
location = Matthews, North Carolina, USA; North Wales, UK
industry = Coatings
products = precision-coated papers, films and specialty substrates for imaging, electronics, medical and optical technologies
homepage = [http://www.exopackadvancedcoatings.com/ www.exopackadvancedcoatings.com ]

Exopack Advanced Coatings (EAC) is a division of Exopack Holding Corp, owned by Sun Capital Partners, a private investment firm. EAC has two facilities located in Matthews, North Carolina, USA and North Wales, UK.

EAC specializes in the development, manufacture and distribution of precision-coated papers, films and specialty substrates for imaging, electronics, medical and optical technologies. They also offer unique specialty films and coating services.

History

The Matthews facility can be traced back to its establishment in 1963 as Riegel Paper, and the North Wales to 1968 as Brittains Riegel. There were various changes on the name due to merger and acquisition during the years.

In 2002, Sun Capital Partners acquired the Image Product Division from Rexam PLC, and renamed it "InteliCoat". The Matthews and North Wales facilities were the EEF (electronics and engineered film) division of InteliCoat.

On August 6, 2007, the EEF division separated from InteliCoat to form Exopack Advanced Coatings, and became a division of Exopack LLC, which is also an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners.

About Advanced Coating

A coating is a covering that is applied to an object to protect it or change its appearance. They may be applied as liquids, gases or solids. The material on which the coating is deposited is usually referred to as a substrate. Advanced Coating usually refers to those coating processes with complicated formulation of chemistry with the aim of achieving specific attribute on the film/paper/substrate/foil surface, this is the same as we may easier understand the contribution of new material development which may change our way of living through revolutionary products. However, generally we don't see and notice the significance of coating, as it's usually a process during the production of material or product. That's why make "coating" become "what you don't see that makes things great."

Applications and technologies

* Medical film
*:Breathable polyurethane film for wound care, this film is actually the substrate of the product, which enable comfortable application on human skin and excellent convenience to mark this product as a new generation.

* Electronic film, phototool for printed circuit board, APF, dry film photoresist
*:A phototool diazo film is designed for the purpose of printed circuit board manufacturing, both the circuitry image transfer and soldermask LPI process. This film is critical for most of the circuit boards production, and PCB is the critical part of almost any electronic products.
*:APF is short for atwork protect film, designed for the purpose of protecting phototool from scratching and chemical erosion without sacrificing the transparency and imaging quality, hence improve the durability and lower the cost of use.
*: Dry film photoresist is another important material used in PCB manufacturing for the graphic transfer

* Conductive film, whiteboard, battery packs component
*:Electronic Whiteboard is now becoming more and more popular in both school classrooms and business meeting rooms, the dry erase attribute and interactive function make them a product to change the way we communicate on writing. The key component on electronic whiteboards is the conductive film on the back and the hardcoat film to protect from scratching on the front surface. Battery current collector is a specially coated conductive foil which is chemical erosion resistent, used in the lithium polymeric metal (LPM) battery to collect current. This component is critical for batteries designed to power a 100% electric car which is a hot project on the market.

*Optical film, window film, photochromic eyeglass
*:Window film is a transparent plastic film or metallic laminate which is applied to glass windows. It is available in many different compositions with varying effects on the optical and mechanical properties of the underlying glass. Because window film is applied to finished glass it is easier to install and less costly than chemically-altered specialty glass.

*Digital printing, flexo
*:Flexo is an abbreviation of Flexography, a method of printing most commonly used for packaging (labels, tape, bags, boxes, banners, etc.). Flexo was pioneered by Barry Pannowitz and Alf Green, and later by Dean Gleeson and Patrick Crouch who worked together in eradicating Moire, the clashing of screen angles.

*Microfilm
*:Microfilms are processed films that carry images of documents to users for transmission, storage, reading and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced about 25 times from the original document size. For special purposes, greater optical reductions may be used. All microform images may be provided as positives or negatives, more often the second.

*Custom coating
*:Custom coating is to customize the coating process and chemistry formulation for specific customer only, can be totally base on customer provided formulation, or can be a co-operated development with customer. In most cases, custom coating partners with top industry leader to coat their advanced products.

References

1. [http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/product-management/5870854-1.html/Rexam's Image Products Division Announces Acquisition by Sun Capital Partners, Inc.]

2. [http://www.aimcal.org/industry/story.asp?RECORD_KEY=ID&ID=987/Intelicoat Technologies Announces The Sale Of Its Electronic And Engineered Films Business Unit]

3. [http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5335405.html/ Method and apparatus for aligning phototools for photoprocessing of printed circuit boards US Patent Issued on August 9, 1994]

4. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3964/is_199911/ai_n8867916/ Wound care technologies: Future unknown] Advances in Wound Care, Nov/Dec 1999 by Thomas, Cathy Copyright Springhouse Corporation Nov/Dec 1999 Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

5. [http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS198480+14-Feb-2008+BW20080214/ Exopack To Supply Critical Current Collector For Revolutionary Battery On New 100% Electric Car - Reuters News]

External links

* [http://www.exopackadvancedcoatings.com/ Official Corporate Website of Exopack Advanced Coatings]

* [http://www.mie.utoronto.ca/labs/cact/Research/CACT-Research.html/ Thermal Spray Coatings, by Centre for Advanced Coating Technologies, University of Toronto]

* [http://www.coatingstech.org/Publications/index.cfm?event=ForSubscribers/ Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology]