Atlas to provide Peruvian BOPP supplier with film slitter

Atlas Converting Equipment is to supply a 6.3m wide Atlas CW964 primary film slitter which will be dedicated to the production of a new 6.2m wide CPP (cast polypropylene) film line at OPP Film in Lima, Peru. The new CPP film line will be commissioned early in 2012 and will be one of the two widest CPP lines in operation worldwide and the first in the Americas, at this width.  

OPP Film of Peru is part of Oben Holding Group and began operations in BOPP film production in 1991 with the foundation of BOPP del Ecuador. This company exported film to the neighboring countries of Colombia and Peru and then commenced production of BOPP film in Peru in 2003 with the establishment of OPP Film in Lima. Since then, continuing expansion of business has led the group to invest in additional BOPP and CPP film lines, an extrusion coating line and vacuum metalizing plant. 

This latest order will eventually bring the total number of Atlas and Titan slitter rewinders installed for the Oben Group to 12 machines. Two 8.9m wide primary slitters for two new BOPP film lines were ordered last year and are currently being installed. One 6.8m wide primary film slitter was also commissioned in 2002.  

Atlas has also supplied two CW800 and one CW810 film slitters up to 5m wide, with five 1650mm wide compact Titan ER610 slitters for converting narrower width films for flexible packaging applications. One of the Titan ER610 slitters is installed at the company’s BOPP film production facility near Buenos Aires in Argentina, which began operations during 2008. 

‘We have been very pleased with the performance of all the Atlas and Titan film slitters we have installed over the last nine years which gave us every confidence in placing the order with Atlas for the new slitter for the 6.2m wide CPP line,’ explained Jamil Zaidan Saba, president of OPP Film / Oben Holding Group. 

‘Without doubt, Atlas provides the most advanced slitting technologies for polypropylene film and we look forward to the new CPP film line starting up next year.  We are also very pleased with the service and customer support we have received from Atlas in South America in recent years, for all their equipment we have installed.’ 

Addition of the operations in Argentina increased the group’s production capacity to approximately 100,000 metric tonnes of BOPP film per annum. However, with the two new BOPP film lines currently being commissioned in Lima, Peru, and the new CPP line due for start-up early next year, the Oben Group will become the largest producer of polypropylene film in South America, which reflects the growth in demand for flexible packaging film in the region. 

The group now has production facilities in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina and distribution centers in Chile, Venezuela, Brazil, Central America and the United States which supply film to all countries in the Americas as well as exporting to customers in Europe and Africa. 

Pictured l-r: Luis Miguel Garzon, general manager, OPP Film; Erik Sosa, technical director, Oben Holding Group; and Jalil Majluf, plant manager, OPP Film, with the Atlas 6.8m primary BOPP film slitter installed in 2002 

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