The customer is an Italian company that produces extruded profiles for furnishings intended for health care facilities, in particular hospital beds and safety barriers.
Request
Their search for a new PVC supplier was dictated by the need to solve, convincingly and quickly, two fundamental problems for their business:
• To improve the dimensional stability of the finished profile, which, once attached to the metal bed structure showed problems with maintaining its shape and was consequently a source of complaints from the end customer.
• To comply with the new fire prevention code (Italian Ministry of the Interior Decree 26/06/84) in the fire reaction class Bs2d0
Proposed solution
TPV Compound met the customer at an industry trade fair and organized a technical visit in order to directly test on the extruder some alternative materials that might resolve the problem of the profile’s dimensional instability. An issue that had persisted for nearly two years was solved in a day’s work. On this basis TPV Compound intervened by including additives in the new formula to reduce smoke emissions, as required by the new fire prevention code. The solution was first tested in the TPV laboratory and then successfully type tested by the customer on the extruded profile.
Future benefits and developments
Thanks to the solution adopted, the customer increased sales in the sector of furnishings for health care facilities by 30% and the company’s profiles today have the reputation of being the highest quality profiles on the market. TPV’s intervention solved the problems tied both to product performance and compliance with the new regulations.