Polystrand Opens New Denver Manufacturing Plant


Polystrand have announced plans to start production in September of this year at its new state-of-the-art facility south of Denver in Douglas County, Colorado.

The company announced plans in June last year to build the new 120,000 square foot facility expanding current manufacturing operations from Montrose to be closer to a major transportation hub.

Mike Gordon, Polystrand Chief Executive Officer, said;

We need room to expand and the new facility is more than double the size of our existing plants in Montrose, easy access to a major rail line and transcontinental highways will facilitate shipments of raw materials and finished products. Being close to Denver International Airport will also make it easier for customers to visit Polystrand as we work on development projects.

Polystrand makes continuous fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites in tapes, rolls, sheets, laminates and preformed inserts. Standard 121⁄2 and 25 inch-wide tapes can be laminated to form sheets and panels up to 101⁄2 feet wide. The new facility will enable Polystrand to produce up to 100 million pounds of reinforcing material annually.

The Polystrand tapes generally range from 60 to 80 percent continuous fibres by weight, and 20 to 40 percent thermoplastic resin. This is a high fibre-to-resin ratio that is very difficult to achieve with traditional thermoplastic composite fabrication processes. The reinforcement comes thoroughly impregnated, avoiding traditional thermoplastic composite concerns about fibre wet-out.

Most commodity thermoset resins use styrene and generally require closed processes or special environmental equipment to control volatile organic compounds. Composite fabricators are looking at thermoplastics as a way to avoid these problems and grow their business under existing environmental permits.

The new facility is in the Highfield Business Park southeast of Centennial Airport. The move is expected to generate up to 240 new jobs to Douglas County in the coming years, Polystrand executives said about 32 experienced employees are expected to accept transfers from Montrose to the Douglas County plant.

Gordon Holdings, the parent company of Polystrand, will also be moving its corporate headquarters to the Douglas County facility while maintaining operations in Montrose for its subsidiary Gordon Composites, and its InnoVoc Solutions division.

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