About

At Arla Plast we have developed and fine-tuned the extrusion techniques for plastic sheets since the 60’s. We have developed the professional knowledge over many years, the machinery resources, the feel for quality and the willingness to always do a good job. Our experience ensures that you receive a product which satisfies your needs.

Good product quality is our primary target to be a good supplier, but this is not enough. Thanks to the cooperation with our customers and suppliers we have learnt the meaning of high flexibility, delivery precision and good service in order to build trust and long term relations.

Today Arla Plast is one of the leading extruders of plastic sheets in Europe. But that is not good enough. Every day we strive for becoming better by developing new materials, new quality specifications and taking care by lowering our environmental impact. All in order to become and to remain your best long term partner.

Today we are 200 employees working at Arla Plast and we are represented in 30 different countries. Our turnover is ca 700 MSEK.

Our production

Our three production facilities are located in Sweden and Czech Republic. We have 15 extrusion lines to produce the plastic sheets and the multiwall products.

Quality and flexibility are two key words for our production. Our production is usually based upon customer specific orders. We strive for speed by quick changeover of shifts between production runs. We try to meet the specific needs of each customer in terms of product, packaging, pallet size and delivery method.

At Arla Plast we have the process knowledge how to extrude plastic sheets.

The process in brief:

The material enters through the feed throat and comes into contact with the screw. The rotating screw forces the plastic beads/granules forward into the heated barrel. The desired extrusion temperature is rarely equal to the set temperature of the barrel due to viscous heating and other effects. In most processes, a heating profile is set for the barrel in which three or more independent controlled heater zones gradually increase the temperature and the optimum is ca 270 degrees C of the barrel from the rear to the front. This allows the plastic beads/granules to melt gradually as they are pushed through the barrel and lowers the risk of overheating which may cause degradation in the polymer

The material passes through a filter plate where the pressure is built up, thereafter it is pumped through a two meter wide nozzle (die). To create sheets the flow of material is led through rollers to be tucked into the right thickness. The distance between the rollers in combination with the speed of flow decides the thickness. During the rolling the material is converted into sheet form that is allowed to cool down. The sheet is cut into requested length and a protection masking is attached on one or both sides.

The sheets often are built up from several layers of plastic material that are created by using several screws at the same time (co-extrusion). This way we can use recycled plastics in the core of the sheet and at the same time put new material on top. Other possible usage of this technique is for adding a thin layer of UV-protecting particles on top of the sheet or for putting a top layer of acrylic on an ABS sheet. There are many possibilities to adapt the sheet structure according to customer’s demand!

Managing colours for extruded sheets is an expertise area for Arla Plast. By mixing colored pellets (masterbatch) with the normal resin we can create coloured sheets with both opaque as transparent characteristics. We have advanced colour laboratory to measure and analyze consistency and deviations in colour.

Besides extrusion of sheets we also offer cutting and routing of sheets as additional services.