Bagmaking Operation is There
When Customers Call

Ray Glenn, VP of Apollo Plastics, Jersey City, NJ, never went to medical school, but his company's approach to customer service sometimes makes him wish he had. "At times it's like an emergency room in here," Glenn says of Apollo's efforts to respond to urgent customer demands. "Everything we sell goes to other manufacturers. If they're out of film or out of bags, they're in trouble. And we have to respond. "The fairly recent addition of a 64-in. Battenfeld Gloucester film line has added not only to the company's response time but to its quality levels as well.

Bread and Butter-and More
The company has been involved in what it calls a "bread and butter business"-the manufacture of blown film and in-line bag converting-since its founding in 1966. Apollo has relied on Battenfeld Gloucester film and bagmaking equipment since it was established. Today, it has 65 employees that operate a total of 16 film lines from Davis-Standard, Reinfenhauser, and Gloucester, some of which are enhanced by Gloucester 4180 in-line bagmaking machines and 1001 Series winders. In addition to the extrusion lines, Apollo also operates five one-color Bell-Mark presses and one two-color Manzoni press that are portable and can operate in-line on any of the film machines. The presses are used to print such things as company logos and product safety warnings. (Ink suppliers are proprietary.) Ray Glenn emphasizes that his company's newest Battenfeld Gloucester lines provide not just additional volume-increasing its pound capacity by 15%-20% in the past several years-but are a "big step forward for Apollo" in other ways. Besides being happy with the increased output, which Glenn describes as at least two to three times that of conventional lines at speeds up to 350 fpm, he says the finished film provides a big jump in quality. The improved converting speed and quality of this line's products have allowed Apollo to capture critical applications in demanding markets that previously could not be entered, including converters, laminators and