Thai BOPP Film Factory Case Study: 35% Energy Reduction & 22% Output Increase with ZILLION Auxiliary Equipment
Location: Rayong Province, Thailand | Industry: BOPP Film Extrusion | Equipment Upgraded: Industrial Chiller, Vertical Mixer, Hopper Dryer
This Thai BOPP (biaxially-oriented polypropylene) film manufacturing facility is located in the Rayong Industrial Zone on Thailand's Eastern Seaboard. The factory operates two Blown Film extrusion lines with a combined output of approximately 3,200 tons of finished film per year, supplying flexible packaging materials to food, pharmaceutical, and consumer goods manufacturers across Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
The facility employs 85 staff across two production shifts and was established in 2010. By late 2023, the factory faced intensifying competition from new BOPP capacity coming online in Vietnam and Indonesia, and from rising resin prices that compressed margins across the regional film industry. Improving production efficiency and reducing conversion costs became urgent strategic priorities.
A production efficiency review conducted in November 2023 identified three interconnected problems that were collectively limiting the plant's competitiveness:
Film extrusion requires precise cooling to solidify the molten polymer bubble at controlled temperatures. The factory's primary cooling system — a 10-year-old air-cooled chiller rated at 320 kW — had developed significant performance drift. On hot days (when ambient temperatures in Rayong regularly exceed 35°C), the chiller struggled to maintain the required cooling water temperature of 18-22°C. This caused the extrusion line to reduce speed by an average of 12% during peak afternoon hours, effectively losing 2-3 hours of full-rate production every working day.
The chiller's average energy consumption of 128 kW also represented a significant cost center, with monthly electricity bills for cooling alone averaging $8,200 USD — a figure that had risen 29% over two years as energy tariffs increased.
HDPE and LLDPE resins — the primary raw materials for the factory's three most profitable film grades — require thorough drying before extrusion. The factory relied on two aging hopper dryers with a combined capacity of 250 kg/hr. These units were unable to maintain consistent dew point temperatures below -30°C during Thailand's humid rainy season (May-October), resulting in moisture levels in the processed resin that occasionally exceeded the 0.1% threshold.
Moisture in the melt caused voids, pinholes, and reduced tensile strength in the finished film — defects that triggered customer complaints and, in two documented cases, caused entire batches to be rejected. In 2023, moisture-related quality incidents accounted for an estimated $48,000 USD in scrap and rework costs.
The factory's best-selling 25-micron transparent film grade required blending LLDPE with 8% LDPE and 3% white masterbatch concentrate. This blending was performed in a simple drum mixer — a manual, open-loop process that produced batch-to-batch variation in color consistency and mechanical properties. This inconsistency occasionally resulted in film rolls being classified as second-quality, sold at a 25% discount to primary grade pricing.
Following a competitive evaluation involving three auxiliary equipment suppliers in January 2024, the factory selected ZILLION for a comprehensive equipment upgrade based on equipment efficiency specifications, after-sales technical support coverage in Thailand, and a 14-week delivery commitment.
The upgrade package, delivered and commissioned between February and April 2024, comprised:
The ZILLION service team, working with the factory's local distributor in Bangkok, completed the installation in three phases to minimize production disruption. The new chiller was installed during a planned maintenance shutdown in February, with the first test runs achieving stable cooling water temperature of 19-21°C even at ambient temperatures of 38°C. The hopper dryer was commissioned in March, and the vertical mixer was installed and PID-tuned during a single weekend shift in April.
Operator training was provided on-site over three days, covering routine maintenance procedures, desiccant wheel replacement intervals, and mixer cleaning protocols between color changeovers.
The new ZL-75HP chiller, rated for high-ambient operation, demonstrated average power consumption of 58 kW — 55% lower than the previous system's 128 kW. Critically, unlike the previous unit, the ZILLION chiller maintained full cooling capacity during Rayong's peak summer temperatures without derating.
The factory's monthly cooling energy cost fell from $8,200 USD to $5,300 USD, representing annualized savings of approximately $34,800 USD. Line speed restriction during hot afternoons was eliminated entirely, recovering the equivalent of approximately 750 production hours per year.
With the ZL-200KG dryer maintaining a consistent dew point of -40°C throughout the rainy season, resin moisture content was held below 0.02% — well within specification. In the first full rainy season after installation (May-October 2024), the factory recorded zero moisture-related quality incidents, compared to 11 incidents in the same period in 2023.
Film tensile strength improved by an average of 7%, and the customer complaint rate related to film quality fell by 84% year-on-year. The factory's largest customer — a Thai food packaging company — upgraded the factory's quality rating from "Approved Supplier" to "Preferred Supplier" in their Q3 2024 vendor assessment.
The ZL-PM200KG vertical mixer's fixed 62 rpm rotational speed provided highly consistent blending of LLDPE, LDPE, and masterbatch concentrate across every batch. Batch-to-batch variation in film color (measured as delta-E color difference) fell from an average of 2.8 to 0.6 — well within the customer's specification of delta-E below 1.5.
With consistent material quality and the elimination of afternoon speed restrictions, average daily output across both extrusion lines increased from 8.8 tons to 10.7 tons — a 22% improvement. Second-quality film production fell from 4.2% of total output to 0.8%, recovering an estimated $31,000 USD in value that had previously been sold at discount.
| Metric | Before | After | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chiller Energy Consumption | 128 kW | 58 kW | 55% reduction |
| Monthly Cooling Energy Cost | $8,200 USD | $5,300 USD | 35% reduction |
| Annualized Cooling Cost Savings | — | $34,800 USD | 11-month payback |
| Moisture-Related Quality Incidents (rainy season) | 11 incidents | 0 incidents | 100% reduction |
| Film Tensile Strength | Baseline | +7% | Quality upgrade |
| Color Consistency (delta-E) | 2.8 | 0.6 | 79% improvement |
| Second-Quality Film Rate | 4.2% | 0.8% | 81% reduction |
| Daily Output (both lines) | 8.8 tons | 10.7 tons | 22% increase |
| Supplier Rating (key customer) | Approved | Preferred | Upgrade achieved |
The factory's production manager cited four factors in their selection decision:
Following the success of the Phase 1 upgrade, the factory is evaluating a Phase 2 investment that includes adding a second ZL-PM200KG mixer for dedicated color-changeover operations, installing ZLAL vacuum autoloaders to automate raw material handling from storage silos, and extending the central cooling system to support a planned third extrusion line scheduled for 2026.
Operating a BOPP, CPP, or PE film extrusion facility in Southeast Asia? Contact the ZILLION engineering team for a free production audit and customized equipment proposal tailored to your specific film grades and production requirements.
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