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Reifenhäuser Group has announced the purchase of Plamex Maschinenbau GmbH, a Kelberg, Germany machine builder that specializes in blown film lines for water-cooled
and biaxially oriented films for the medical and food packaging industry. The company will operate under the name Reifenhäuser Blown Film Plamex GmbH & Co. KG. 

The acquisition expands the Reifenhäuser Groups’ product range to include emerging technology for flexible film production. "The extremely efficient water cooling keeps the polymer in amorphous state and produces a particularly glossy and transparent film with remarkable puncture resistance and very good barrier properties. In our discussions with customers we can now provide even more differentiated advice and deliver the optimum solution for the particular application," says Bernd Reifenhäuser, CEO of the Reifenhäuser Group.

Adds Plamex managing director Manfred Kurscheid, "We are proud to be part of the Reifenhäuser Group. We will join forces and thus be able to act even more efficiently for our customers. Water cooled blown film extrusion lines for medical applications, such as infusion bags, and biaxially oriented multi-layer films, have not been in the scope of the Reifenhäuser group, yet. Now we can offer water-quench, double and multi-bubble technologies, with
which we can address new customer groups and thus continue our growth path."

In North America, water-cooled blown film lines are available from Brampton Engineering and  Windmoeller & Hoelscher. Brampton, now part of Davis-Standard, introduced its water-quenched AquaFrost technology more than 10 years ago. W&H debuted the Aquarex line at an open house in 2015.