Itasa invests in additional capacity

Itasa (Industrias de Transformación de Andoain), a manufacturer of siliconized release liner based in Spain’s Basque country, is investing in additional manufacturing capacity.

Following the installation of a custom-built, high-speed 2.3m-wide BMB coater in 2008, the company has just installed it’s a second machine with 1.65m width, capable of running at 800 meters a minute. This brings Itasa’s coating capacity to four machines, supported by advanced automatic silicone mixing.  

Complementing the coating capacity are a selection of slitters at 2.3m and 165mm widths, plus a new machine capable of slitting narrow-width rolls down to just 20mm; and, since around 20 percent of Itasa’s production requires a customer logo, two printing machines, one inline and one offline. 

Current production capacity is 450 million square meters per annum which, with the commissioning of the new coater, will be closer to 600 million square meters.  Eighty percent of the company’s production is exported – 50 percent within Europe, and the balance in the USA, Mexico and Asia.

The company is also in the process of completing an extension to its building in Andoain, to create a total of 6,500 square meters of dedicated raw material and finished goods storage – an increase of nearly 50 percent. The project has involved building a special protective retaining wall, since the site is on the side of a hill, as well as a massive underground water tank with associated sprinkler system to meet the requirements of the EU safety regulations. Together with the new machinery, this represents a 20 million euro investment.