We have communicated again with Flexo’s engineer. The problem they are facing since January 2014 is When they unload the flexibags : clumps form that clog the discharge pump and this gives the latex a more adhesive form.
Previously when Flexo received our flexibags, these were discharged and mixed with the latex from Guatemala - Flexo encountered some problems in the process however with small adjustments it was still possible to use the blend of lattices.
In April Flexo received a late delivery from Guatemala so they decided to process directly the latex they had received from CENTROTRADE. This is when Flexo saw the lumps forming in the process tanks, for this reason they had to start a straining process to remove the lumps and in some cases it has definitely altered the stability of the latex. (This issue, occurs mainly when they pigment the red colors).
Being a bit more explicit:
The generation of lumps forces Flexo to filter the pigmented latex repeatedly to remove lumps entirely generated by CENTRO’s latex in particular, with greater colour reaction and with a higher pigment content.
Latex from other sources (Guatemala) creates the same pigmentation however Flexo are not presented with the problem of lumps.
This situation has forced Flexo to lower productivity significantly, and in lowering production, the product is becoming more expensive to produce because they constantly have to change the process.
Coagulum appears during discharge, as well as during production. Flexo have to keep filtering the latex to remove the lumps. The problem is particularly serious during production when they add red pigments. They are even forced in this case (red pigment) to mix our latex with latex from other suppliers to be able to use our latex at all in production.