'Blues' Don't Keep Firm Down
Extruder Sekisui provides exacting standards for clients

by Angie DeRosa

Welcome to the company where blue clothing is banned.

SEKISUI Polymer Innovations, LLC prohibits anyone entering its plant or lab areas from wearing blue. It even has removed all blue rags and gloves from its facilities - two factories in Bloomsburg, Pa., and one in Holland, Mich.

Officials explain the policy in the visitor guide: Blue dots or inclusions have appeared in formed parts made of Sekisui's sheet - branded as Kydex - that have light colors, such as white, light gray or beige. Blue fibers, which might seem innocuous, can contaminate the sheet during the extrusion process. The fibers are invisible on the flat product but reappear once the sheet is thermoformed or any other heated fabrication process is applied.

Ronn Cort, president and COO, and company managers aren't willing to take any risks as they apply exacting standards to serve clients that make parts for planes, trains and medical devices. The sheet extrusion process here involves short runs - less than 1,000 pounds per order - on contracts with lead times of less than two weeks and on-time shipping rates of 99 percent.