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Two years after establishing an operation in the UK, Riverdale Global will make its first appearance at Interplas, highlighting a Sealed Color™ total system that lets customers handle and use liquid colors and return containers for replenishment without ever seeing a drop.
“Our system by its very nature involves localized production, supply, and support,” said Paul Edmondson, managing director of Riverdale Global UK and affiliate Maguire Europe. “Riverdale Global UK enables local customers to benefit from global technologies while obtaining fast, responsive, service from a UK supplier.”
Drawing on stocks of single-pigment dispersions (SPDs) produced by Riverdale Global in the U.S., Riverdale Global UK prepares custom colors and additives for use with the full range of thermoplastic polymers. An SPD is a dispersion of a single pigment that can be blended with other SPDs to develop colors to customer specification. Employing a computerized color blending system whose software incorporates a database of thousands of formulations, Riverdale Global UK develops matched colors and ships them to customers following approval of sample plaques. An on-site quality-control laboratory documents all color matches and provides pre- and post-production traceability.
In addition to colors, Riverdale Global UK supplies the GlobalPlus™ range of liquid additives, including slip, antistatic, nucleating, and blowing agents, UV stabilizers, antioxidants, antimicrobials, and flow modifiers.
Both liquid colors and liquid additives are supplied in the company’s proprietary “Pump-in-a-Drum” containers, from which liquids are metered into the process by means of pumps located inside the drum. These containers stay sealed from the moment they arrive at the processor’s loading dock, through storage, handling, and metering into the process, and during return to Riverdale Global for replenishment.
“Riverdale Global’s Sealed Color and Global Plus product ranges eliminate all of the complications of conventional liquid handling, including spillage, leakage, cleanup, tube replacement, pump maintenance, uncolored product, unused colorant, environmental concerns, and disposal costs,” said Mr. Edmondson. “What remains are the substantial cost and productivity advantages of liquid colors and additives over pellet masterbatch.”
An extension of the Pump-in-a-Drum concept is the Riverdale Gravimetric Stand (RGS), in which the liquid-containing drum is mounted on a self-calibrating loss-in-weight scale that continually reports the weight of the contents to the controller as a means of ensuring that the target let-down ratio is maintained.
Riverdale Global UK has developed a strong client base over the last two years across a range of processes, Mr. Edmondson said. “Customers appreciate our speed and quality of service. The larger enterprises in particular, with a strong commitment to sustainability, are smitten with our Return for Refill Program, which enhances their zero-waste ambitions. And both large and small customers in the UK are delighted with our gravimetric dosing equipment, developed by Riverdale Global’s world-renowned sister company Maguire. This equipment provides extreme precision and operational certainty. Better still, it is supplied free of charge to use.”
The dosing equipment will be available to see in the Riverdale Global booth at Interplas.
