A leading flexible packaging and label manufacturer in Hungary, Material-Plastik supplies its products to many multinational and local market leaders. Its clientele include household names such as Nestlé, Coca Cola, and multiple other paper product and food manufacturers as well as soft drink, beer and mineral water bottlers. With a desire to continuously grow while maintaining customer satisfaction, Material-Plastik prides itself on the delivery of high quality plastic packaging solutions. When static generation on its production lines threatened to interfere with this process, an investment in anti-static bar solutions from Meech International helped put a stop to the problems, allowing business growth to continue and production to flow seamlessly.

Founded in 1989, Soltvadkert-based Material-Plastik started out with just a plastic extruder and four employees. 29 years later, the company employs 120 people and has invested in a large amount of equipment for its plastic packaging and labelling manufacturing needs: "Ever since our first day in business, the goal of Material-Plastik has been to achieve continuous growth, covering all aspects of the company's operation," says Material-Plastik's Sales Manager and Head of Technical Support, Attila Nemeth. "This involves establishing an ideal site, employing well trained staff, acquiring and using the latest technology and equipment, as well as creating and maintaining good relationships and communications with all our clients."

Nemeth believes plastic's versatility will give it the edge as a packaging material in Hungary for years to come. "There are many ways plastic foils can be utilised. They are used by the food industry, the packaging industry, and in commerce as well. Due to their technical characteristics and the appealing look of the wrapped end-product, plastic foils are ideal for packaging electronic equipment and making gift wrappings. Plastic-based products, are and will continue to be, market-leading products in Hungary.

"We are proud to say that we have been able to compete with foreign plastic industry leaders who have moved their operations to Hungary - we've secured our current market position as a 100% family owned and operated business, without involving any foreign capital."

Material-Plastik's work and success in the plastic packaging and labelling processing business has not been without its obstacles: "Static charges are a big problem for consumer packaging manufacturing - but this can be easily solved with the right technology," continues Nemeth. "This is why we put our faith in Meech - its Static control bars and support staff have been integral to solving this problem in our business for over six years."

Installed on Material-Plastik's extruder and printing lines, Meech's Hyperion 924IPS short-range and Hyperion 929IPS mid-range antistatic bars have proved the ideal solution in preventing static and contamination build up on Material-Plastik's plastic packaging material.

The 924IPS is the most compact pulsed DC bar available on the market - it features Meech's Ion Current Monitoring (ICM) technology which ensures performance is maintained with local and remote alerts for when the bar needs cleaning. Meech's 929IPS, also featuring ICM technology, can be easily installed onto printing and converting machinery and provides extremely powerful ionisation.

This equipment has been crucial to the company for a long time: "For the past five to six years, whenever we bought a new machine, we ordered Meech's Static Control bars at the same time," continues Nemeth. "Today, we use their 924IPS and 929IPS Hyperion bars on all of our extruder and printing lines and they have completely eliminated the static charge phenomenon.

"We are also delighted with the support we have had from Meech's local team - they are the most professional and qualified people I have ever worked with."

Nigel Taylor, Central European Coordinator at Meech International says: "Material-Plastik produces packaging materials for some world-leading brands, so it is vital that it is offering consistent high quality to its customers.

"Employing static control equipment on its plastic production lines has gone a long way to achieving this. Removing static, and therefore contamination, on its finished products ensures the business's manufacturing processes are kept flowing and wastage is reduced to a minimum."

Material Plastik's printing division.