ME.RO SURFACE TREATERS
The first experiences of ME.RO in the field of treatment of plastic films are going back at the beginning of the sixties. The corona treatment represents nowadays the core business of the company, the production range of the company is completed with the plasma treatment and the induction sealing systems (machines for the filling industry). The export represents nowadays the 90 % of the sales. The western Europe market is the market that has been developed before for obvious logistic reasons, but in the last years the activity in Eastern market is increasing strongly. Regarding the Asian market, ME.RO is operative with an office in Shanghai (China) since 2005 managed by Italian employees.
Corona treatment for Biorientated film
The corona treatement represents the 85-90 % of the sales. We make corona treaters for every application starting from a width of 150 mm for installations on small printing press up to corona systems of 8-10 mt width, installed on extrusion lines for BOPP-BOPETBOPA films. In terms of power the range goes from 1 kW up to 125 kW. We are talking of extrusion lines producing tons of film per hour, it is absolutely forbidden to stop such a machine for corona problems. It is requested on these lines, not only reliability but also an high technological level because realizing a treater for these dimensions has nothing to do with a small treater for a blown film line.
The other applications of the corona treatment
If the application on the Biorientated film represents a great point of force for ME.RO, the company is present of course in all other sectors. In the cast film (especially cast polypropilene, the most difficult to treat) ME.RO has developed a great experience during the years and in the last period has enlarged its presence on the markets outside Europe. Very important has become in the last 20-25 years the corona application in the converting industry, a sector that started very slowly but has increased incredibly in the last years. The converters infact are using more and more corona treaters on the printing and laminating lines in order to refresh the treatment and have better results for their process. In this particular field a new range of machines has been developed giving the possibility to treat both conductive and non conductive webs at speed of 800-1000 m/min (installations realized on very special and fast rotogravure and laminating lines).
The plasma treatment
In the last years ME.RO has developed a plasma treatment that is used in the field of the under vacuum metallizers. In the last period, the company is working consistently on the Atmospheric Plasma System (APT system), a surface treater that works in atmospheric conditions like the corona and can be applied on line on the extrusion or converting lines. The difference with corona is determined by the fact that the discharge is made not in air but in a modified atmosphere (blowing special gas mixtures under the electrode) obtaining different results from corona. This device is used on difficult films to treat or in order to maintain the treatment level for longer time (lower decay).