Manufacturing
How the panel is actually made
RETRAK operates a low-temperature thermo-press process: recovered PolyAl in, homogeneous building board out. No binders, no solvents, no firing. Below is the process, the parameters we hold and the tolerances we ship to.
- 2 lines
- Operating press lines, Monterrey plant
- 9,600 t
- Annual consolidated board capacity
- 1.2 M
- Cartons of PolyAl diverted per line, monthly
- ± 0.012 in
- Thickness tolerance held across a run
Feedstock intake and specification
Post-consumer PolyAl arrives baled from carton hydrapulping operations. Every inbound lot is sampled for residual fibre, moisture and aluminium fraction before it is released to production.
- Residual fibre
- ≤ 6% by mass
- Moisture at press
- ≤ 0.8%
- Aluminium fraction
- 18–24%
- Lot traceability
- Batch ID retained 5 years
Shredding, washing and drying
Bales are shredded to a controlled flake size, washed to remove food residue and adhesives, then dried in a low-temperature belt dryer. Flake geometry governs press density, so screen size is verified each shift.
- Flake size
- 5/16–9/16 in nominal
- Wash stages
- 3 (hot, caustic-free)
- Dryer temperature
- 172 °F ± 7 °F
- Process water
- Closed loop, zero discharge
Thermo-pressing
Dried flake is metered into a heated multi-daylight press. The polyethylene fraction reaches melt and re-consolidates around the aluminium, producing a homogeneous board with no binder, solvent or firing step.
- Platen temperature
- 330 °F ± 9 °F
- Specific pressure
- 610 psi
- Cycle time
- 6–11 min by thickness
- Added binders
- None
Profiling and finishing
Consolidated boards are corrugated, trimmed to length and edge-finished. Colour is dispersed through the full thickness during compounding — there is no surface coating to chalk, peel or fade back to a different substrate.
- Corrugation pitch
- 3 in pitch / 3/4 in depth
- Length tolerance
- ± 1/8 in
- Thickness tolerance
- ± 0.012 in
- Colour system
- Through-body, no coating
Quality control
Each production run is sampled for density, thickness, water absorption and flexural performance. Results are held against the lot batch ID and released with the shipment documentation on request.
- Sampling rate
- 1 board per 250
- Density check
- 65.6 lb/ft³ ± 3%
- Water absorption
- < 0.5% (24 h immersion)
- Freeze-thaw
- 50 cycles, no delamination
Packing, storage and freight
Panels are banded on heat-treated pallets, edge-protected and stretch-wrapped for container and LTL transport. Canadian orders ship from the Calgary warehouse or direct from the container program.
- Pallet quantity
- 50–120 sheets by thickness
- Container load
- Up to 24 t / 40 ft HC
- Domestic freight
- LTL and full-load, all provinces
- Storage
- Flat, dry, out of direct sun
Need process data for a specification?
Batch records, QC reports and current test evidence are available to specifiers and distributors on request.