• Home
• Manufacturing
• Quality Assurance
• Quality Efforts

QUALITY ASSURANCE

OTHER ARGOTEC QUALITY EFFORTS

The three areas discussed on the links at the end of this page (recipe control, process control, and adherance to customer standards and quality) should be standard operating procedure for any quality-oriented manufacturer of polyurethane films and sheet. However, there is more that can be done to ensure the highest possible quality product and adherance to customer standards.

Argotec continues to make the necessary investments in equipment and people to do just that. The company's most recent advances include:

1. Installation of Laboratory Extrusion Lines
Argotec has made significant investment in quality and R&D capability with the installation of blown-film and flat-die laboratory test lines. Similar in function to full-sized extrusion lines, these lab lines allow Argotec to run smaller test batches prior to committing customers to the expense of a full production run. They also avoid interruption of commercial production for trial runs on the full-size lines.

Additionally, these lab lines are used to generate short-run film concept samples for customers, testing the processability and physical characteristics of new film formulations, and performing preliminary tests of new product offerings from resin suppliers. All of which will result in faster, lower-cost scale-up of commercial projects, as well as maintaince of the highest possible quality standards.

2. Installation of New Camera Inspection System
This inspection system is capable of detecting and documenting pin holes, voids, gels, wrinkles, streaks and dark or light contaminants as small as 0.3 mm. It is used to inspect films produced by standard flat-die extrusion methods. The system provides the machine operator with not only 100 percent real-time inspection status and control, but also the capability to generate complete roll-by-roll documentation of any potential defects and their location. It is designed to ensure Argotec customers receive the most consistent and highest quality films possible.

3. Installation of Hard-Walled Clean Rooms
The year 2006 saw the completion of a second hard-walled clean room in Argotec's recently expanded optical films division facility. The company now has clean rooms in all three manufacturing facilities. In addition to selected general TPU film products, all of Argotec's aliphatic, optical-grade, interlayer films are produced in clean-room environments, assuring customers the cleanest films in the specialty films industry.

4. Creation of Argotec Innovation Center
Perhaps the best example of our on-going commitment to quality is the rededication of the 1999 Adams Road plant as a stand-alone facility devoted to research and the development of new and improved urethane films and processes, both our own and those of our customers. The industry's first-of-its-kind facility is aptly named the Argotec Innovation Center.