Eastman Chemical Company has announced it is making an investment to upgrade and expand the extrusion capabilities at its Springfield, Mass., facility for the production of interlayers product lines. The company says the investment will strengthen its supply capability for Saflex polyvinyl butyral (PVB) products in the automotive and architectural markets, and enhance facility capabilities to allow production of specialty architecture and automotive PVB products, such as thicker gauges and advanced tri-layers formulations such as Saflex acoustic interlayer products.
The project is expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2021.
“We are committed to supporting the growing global demand for specialty interlayers products, strengthening our regional service capabilities, and investing in asset capabilities to serve glass laminators’ needs for high-performing, high-quality products,” said Travis Smith, vice president and general manager of Eastman’s Films business. “The trends in both automotive and architectural end-use markets are driving increasing needs for high-performance interlayer products, and we are excited about the opportunities this investment creates to further enable our innovation-driven growth strategy.”
