Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019 - 34

EXTRUSION

The big squeeze

Extrusion lines in Hall 1 at Epwin Group

Following the interview with Martin Althorpe (see previous page), PRW was
given access to the Epwin Group extrusion facility to ﬁnd out how the company
produces and quality checks its range of window and door proﬁles

Entrance hall at the Epwin Group
production facility in Telford

WWW.PRW.COM | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019

n 1976, Jim Rawson started importing
PVC window proﬁles from Germany,
the ﬁrst time the products were made
available in the UK. After an examination
of the cost structure, Rawson elected to
base the start production of the proﬁles
in the UK. And so the forerunner of the
Epwin Group came into being.
While the current group operates a series of sites across the country, the headquarters of the Window Systems Division
is located in Telford, Shropshire.
Opened in the 1990s, the plant now
features two extrusion halls. Manufacturing is split across the two shop ﬂoors;
PVCu proﬁles for main windows and door
sections are produced in Hall 1, while
glazing beads and other accessory components are made in Hall 2.
Output in the main proﬁle hall can
reach up to 100 tonnes per day. End to
end, that could be 50 miles of PVCu framing. Up to eight of the 10 production lines
are in use at any given time, with tool
changes and scheduled maintenance carried out to deliver the most eﬃcient production runs.
PVCu proﬁle extrusion requires monitoring and control of the many variables
which could aﬀect the process, from raw

material blend characteristics through to
cleanliness of the water used to cool the
extrusions. The operation runs 24/7, with
just a 10-day shutdown over the Christmas holiday for maintenance. Systems
feedback and preventative maintenance
are crucial to overall reliability.
This production setup delivers a total
current annual output of about 40,000
tonnes; maximum output could run considerably higher. According to Gerald
Allen, marketing manager for Epwin Window Systems Division, that headroom
could support business growth in a variety
of directions.
"We are very good at working with
new customers. That's supported by the
experience gained setting up the awarding-winning Optima by Proﬁle 22 products." Allen adds that while Epwin manufactures three key product brands, Proﬁle
22, Spectus and Swish, there are a number of cross-brand niche products which
allows Epwin to fulﬁl any customer fenestration requirement.
Epwin has been carrying out major upgrades across its proﬁle extrusion lines.
Over the past two years the company has
installed a series of new machines, developed in cooperation with leading machine

http://WWW.PRW.COM

Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019