Pluss Polymers, a polymers research and manufacturing company based in Gurgaon, Haryana, has announced plans for a new manufacturing unit at Bawal, an upcoming industrial area located close to Manesar, one of the biggest automobile hubs.

The proposed state-of-the-art facility will cover an area of 10,000 sq. ft spread over three floors. It will be the first plant in India to manufacture ‘shape stabilised’ polymer composite phase change materials.

“These materials will be used to create products to keep food hot or cold. It has already found a large market in the US. We are sure India will catch up soon,” said Samit Jain, Managing Director, Pluss Polymers, which is involved in speciality polymeric additives and phase change materials for thermal energy storage.

Ankit Jhanwar, Manager, Corporate Planning, Pluss Polymers, said, “It will have automated Form Fill Seal Machine to handle a wide variety of packaging films to encapsulate phase change materials. Currently, we are exporting PCMs to help maintain a temperature of 20 to 25 deg C consistently while transporting wines and certain bio/pharma products.”

A new twin screw extruder is slated to arrive in mid-October which will increase the capacity of speciality polymers from 700 tpa to 1,800 tpa.

According to Samit Jain, the Bawal plant will be one of the first small scale industries to install a thermal energy storage system of 40 tons, to maintain the temperature of the unit between 24-28°C. This will help save tremendous amount of diesel given the poor power situation in Haryana. It will also be a small contribution towards demand-side management of electricity.

The system is indigenously designed and is now on offer commercially for anyone. It will run at night when power is available and economical to store the cold energy. During the day the stored energy will be used for air-conditioning of the laboratory and office spaces. The plant will otherwise use efficient evaporative cooling based ambiators to maintain a comfort temperature of 28 deg C.

The new facility will also serve as the company’s R&D centre. A complete floor has been earmarked for research activities. It will also have a laboratory for chemical analysis along with facilities for testing applications of phase change materials like solar drying of vegetables and foods and a plate freezer to test extremely low temperature PCM which will replace dry ice.

The plant will also serve as a centre for innovative products. “We envision putting Pluss on the world innovation map with consistent and pragmatic innovations. The company’s mission is to provide solutions to create a definitive change in the polymers and thermal energy storage industry. We cannot predict the future, but we know that we are into innovative products for the long run,” Samit Jain added.


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