Roll the Film.

This article reports that Pliant Corp., a producer of bags, or flexible packaging, needed to upgrade the temperature controllers on two of its blown film lines in its South Deerfield, Masschusetts-based plant. The plant was keeping the controllers operating with spare parts. Troubleshooting the process with the old controllers was difficult; operators would be tipped off to a temperature production problem by observing subtle changes in the bubble's frost line, the point where the polymer changes from liquid back to solid. The company had three requirements in mind when he shopped for a new controller: ease of use, the ability to automatically change temperature settings on the line when switching to new resin grades, and the ability to log and store data. Working with FM Keefe Co., a distributor of industrial heating and control equipment based in Springfield, Massachusetts, Pliant chose the PPC-2000, a multiloop digital controller designed for extrusion lines, supplied by Watlow Electric Manufacturing Co. of St. Louis, Missouri.