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The Swedish government's restriction on the use of a flame retardant contravenes EU law and 10 years of scientific assessment, according to EBFRIP, the European Brominated Flame Retardant Industry Panel whose members are bromine producers Albemarle, Eurobrom - a subsidiary of ICL-IP of Israel, and Chemtura.
The restriction is on deca-BDE (decabromodiphenyl ether) which is used in textiles and electronic equipment. There has been much debate on the toxity or otherwise of deca-BDE, with its exemption from the RoHS Directive in October last year. The controversy brought the European Parliament and the European Commission into conflict with the European Parliament earlier this year challenging the EC decision to lift the previous ban. The position became confused in July this year when a letter from the Commission's Directorate-General Environment suggested that nona-BDE concentrations in commercial grades of deca-BDE would exceed the 0·1 per cent RoHS concentration limit on PBDE, which was construed to mean that deca-BDE was in effect still banned.
The Swedish government has now restricted the use of deca-BDE in textiles, furniture and cables from January 1, 2007, but has not included automotive or electrical and electronic equipment in the restriction. EBFRIP commented: 'This unilateral action is a serious breach of EU law and contradicts a 10 year EU scientific assessment which did not identify any risk for human health or the environment from the use of deca-BDE. It also goes against the proposed new chemicals legislation, REACH, which bases regulatory decisions on scientific testing'.
It went on: 'The action by Sweden will either encourage the use of less tested alternatives or drive consumer products to be less safe by increasing their flammability. It has potentially serious implications for consumer fire safety.'
Teknor Apex to quit rubber August 27, 2006
Teknor Apex, the US-based compounder which owns Chem Polymer, is phasing out its rubber division, which grew out of the company's original function as a tyre rebuilder in the 1920s. Job losses are expected at its headquarters site in Rhode Island and also at its plant in Brownsville, Tennessee.
The division has been losing money for some time, for which the company blames changes in industrial trends with the replacement of rubber by other materials, and reduced demand from the car industry because of high oil prices.
Teknor Apex's thermoplastic elastomers business is unaffected.
Hellyar extends distribution for NPC August 27, 2006
Hellyar Plastics has become sole UK and Ireland distributor of polyolefins from Iran's National Petrochemical Company. Hellyar has been distributing NPC's ABS for more than a year, and has now become one of five European distributors for HD/LLD/LDPE and PP.
Brückner gets four-line PET film order from China August 27, 2006
Four complete PET film lines have been ordered by a Chinese company from Brückner Formtec of Germany. The order from Far Eastern New Material, which also includes the upgrading of two existing lines with multilayer dies and extruders, is the biggest single order the company has received from China.
The four lines will include three identical horizontal roll stack lines for polished APET film in a thickness range from 200 - 1,200 microns and an inclined roll stack for thick polished APET film in a range from 500 - 1,800 microns. All lines will be equipped with twin screw main extruders, multi-layer feedblocks and fully automatic multi-web turret winders and will also incorporate proprietary Brückner technologies like the JuBo roll with adjustable crowning, and a dry running vacuum degassing unit.
Line control will be linked into Far Eastern's enterprise resource planning software to enable tracking from the raw material to APET film and the finished lot of thermoformed goods.
With the new lines Far Eastern will increase its annual APET film capacity to about 60,000 tonnes of A-grade film. Some will be processed in house, but the majority will be sold at home and abroad.
IDI opens dual Chinese sites August 27, 2006
US-based thermosets specialist IDI Composites International, which recently consolidated its plant at the former BIP site in Birmingham, has opened two plants in China. It has opened sites in Shanghai and Shenzhen, making it 'the only thermoset moulding compound manufacturer with two manufacturing facilities in Asia'.
Moulding compounds will be manufactured locally and delivered more quickly by having two sites. There will also be benefits in preserving material shelf life. Custom formulations produced by IDI in Asia are transferable to its manufacturing facilities in Europe and The Americas.
DuPont raises PI capacity to feed increased Vespel parts production August 27, 2006
DuPont Engineering Polymers has expanded its polyimide resin production to give a 50 per cent increase for production of direct-formed Vespel SP-1 and SP-21 parts. The expansion is at Circleville, Ohio in the USA, supplying material for direct-formed parts at Pencader in Delaware and other sites.
Direct-formed Vespel parts combine very high temperature resistance with low wear and low friction. Typical applications include bushings, seal rings, thrust washers, bearings and multi-functional electrical insulating parts. Major end-use industries include automotive, aerospace and semi-conductor manufacturing.
DuPont plans 2007 launch of nanocomposite series August 21, 2006
A family of thermoplastic nanocomposites is in development at DuPont for introduction next year. The materials will be targeted at automotive, electrical, electronic and industrial applications for which they are expected to bring higher performance, lighter weight and increased moulding productivity.
DuPont has a two-pronged research programme into the behaviour of nanomaterials in polymers: to harness the properties resulting from nanomaterial inclusion, and the dispersion of nanomaterials in polymers. It is the latter development that will yield the new compound range. The polymers and additives being used already exist; the innovation lies in the proprietary process technology developed by DuPont. According to Nandan Rao, technology director of DuPont Performance Materials, 'With proper dispersion in a polymer, we have found that small amounts of a naturally occurring material form nanoscale reinforcement structures that can produce substantial improvements in mechanical properties, high-temperature properties, barrier properties and processing characteristics'.
An example of the performance potential is in weight saving. The DuPont process can be used to make a glass-reinforced nanocomposite that demonstrates similar properties to conventional glass-reinforced PET, but with significantly lower glass content. So the weight of parts made from it can be reduced without losing performance.
Rexam invests in Indian pharmaceuticals packaging August 21, 2006
Rexam is buying an Indian pharmaceutical packaging company for £5 million. Truepack has one manufacturing site at Bangalore, where it produces eye, ear and oral dropper bottles, nasal spray bottles and tamper evident closure systems. At the end of its last financial year the company had sales of £2 million, almost exclusively into the domestic market. It has recently been granted approvals by US authorities to export a number of its products into the USA.
Rexam has also become majority partner in a joint venture with Hindustan Tin Works to start up a beverage can plant.
Dow takes over Asahi PS joint venture August 21, 2006
Dow Chemical is buying out its partner in Styron Asia, Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corporation. Styron Asia is a 50:50 joint venture between Dow and Asahi, with SAL Petrochemical (Zhangjiagang) Co in China as the production unit for Styron and Styron A-Tech polystyrenes and Styron Asia in Hong Kong as the marketing company.
Dow is to acquire Asahi's shares in Styron Asia in Hong Kong and Dow Financial Holdings Singapore is to acquire Asahi's shares in SAL Petrochemical (Zhangjiagang) Co in China. No price has been disclosed. Dow says the move is part of a multi-tiered strategy to revitalize its polystyrene business in Asia while for Asahi it follows 'Growth Action-2010', with focus on product differentiation, specialisation, and added value for polystyrene rather than on volume-centered expansion.
High speed extruder 'doubles output' August 21, 2006
A pipe extruder said to double output compared with conventional extruders has been built by Cincinnati Extrusion in Vienna, and is now being tested by Rehau at Viechtach in Austria. The Rapidex prototype has a 60 mm diameter screw 37 D long with modified screw geometry and feed zone design. The drive capacity was doubled, and the screw run at double the speed of a conventional machine. Ouput reached 1,000 kg/hr is PE 100 and 800 kg/hr in PP, which Cincinnati says is more than double the output of a conventional extruder of this size.
In further tests a PE pipe with an external diameter of 160 mm and 14·6 mm wall thickness was produced using a spiral mandrel die. During these tests, says Cincinnati, the pipes came out with a particularly smooth inner surface, indicating excellent melt homogeneity and dispersion performance.
The high throughput rate means that the thermal stress on the melt is kept low because of the short dwell time in the extruder and the consistent melt temperature. Mechanically the new extruder withstood the demands made on it, resisting back pressures of up to 500 bar. Cincinnati suggests that an extruder of this type could be used to save space, giving the same output as a much larger machine. The company says that a further benefit is the direct relation between screw speed and output, which is consistent across the entire screw speed range and consequently the entire output range.
Trelleborg opens Chinese seals plant August 21, 2006
A manufacturing plant has been opened in China by Trelleborg's Sealing Solutions business, giving the company increased capacity to serve China and the rest of Asia. Trelleborg says it is committed to expanding aggressively in Asia, and that this plant will be followed by others, in China and in other Asian countries.
The new plant will make seals for key markets such as aerospace, chemical processing, semi-conductors and the oil and gas sectors. It will have about 100 employees by the end of the year and a total floor space of 10,000 m².
Solvay in Chinese fluorine JV August 21, 2006
Solvay has joined with a Chinese company to develop its fluorine products business. It has formed
Zhejiang Lansol Fluorchem Co with Zhejiang Lantian Environmental Protection Hi-Tech Co, which is taking a 70 per cent share, to produce hydrogen fluoride.
Solvay is building a fluorinated polymer production unit in Changshu, China, which will be operational in the second half of 2007 and could expand rapidly by adding more products to its specialty polymer production capabilities. It is also building a plant for fluorinated chemical specialties in Onsan, South Korea, scheduled to start operations in 2007.
The fluorine joint venture is a good strategic fit for Solvay. China is the world's largest producer of fluorspar, the mineral needed to produce hydrogen fluoride; and China and Asia are where Solvay wants to grow its fluorinated specialties activities.
Battenfeld buys Italian printing press company August 20, 2006
Battenfeld Gloucester has now taken over its flexographic press development partner Converting Technology of Bussolengo in Italy. The two companies co-operated in the design of the FlexoElite press, the first model of which was bought by US converter Eastern Packaging some 18 months ago to print graphics-intensive flexible-packaging films.
The FlexoElite is an eight- or ten-colour press using gearless linear electromagnetic motors, four on each deck, which the company says make it more accurate than conventional flexographic presses with rotary ball-screws. The press is said to be more productive and less costly to operate, especially since the motors have no moving parts to wear out, and to achieve print accuracy of 0·1 micron compared to the average of 20 to 30 microns for flexographic machines.
Trelleborg plans new specialist rubber acquisition August 20, 2006
A Danish roofing products company is the latest acquisition target at Trelleborg. The Swedish-based international rubber technology group has bought a number of companies in recent months.
This latest acquisition will be the operations of Hetag Tagmaterialer and 40 per cent of the operations of Hetag Tagdaekning and its subsidiaries. Hetag is privately owned and based in Hedensted, Denmark. Hetag Tagmaterialer distributes roofing products in the Danish market and has some 20 employees and annual sales of approximately Eur 10·8 million, and Hetag Tagdaekning and its subsidiaries conduct roofing contract work, with annual sales of about Eur 32 million.
The acquisition will be through Trelleborg's Building Systems division and its roofing subsidiary Trelleborg Phønix, which has a strong position in the Danish roofing market. The acquisition is expected to be completed on October 1.
Film gauge and air ring companies link for package deals August 20, 2006
Aipex Engineering, which owns blown film monitoring equipment manufacturer Sussex Gauging, has formed a partnership with Future Design of Canada, which makes the Saturn Chamber and a wider range of Saturn Air Rings. The aim is to provide a complete management system for blown film lines, using data from the Sussex Gauging equipment to control the Future Design air ring.
The company says that until now the owners of blown film lines have purchased these products in a fragmented fashion and made the products work together as best as possible. This partnership will allow a complete solution from one supplier.
The Sussex Gauge range provides a visual 'map' of faults but cannot necessarily amend diagnosed faults on the line. The air ring range can counter the faults but cannot identify or display them. 'The combination of the two technologies will speed line start up, provide raw material savings up to 6 per cent, reduce down time/scrap and optimise production'.
The partnership will also provide savings on the combined price of products purchased from either company.
Basell doubles output of Australian PP plant August 20, 2006
Capacity at Basell's Geelong polypropylene plant in Australia has more than doubled with the completion of an expansion programme, rising from 60,000 to 130,000 tonnes.
Vita men reunite to run Dugdale August 20, 2006
Former Vita Thermoplastic Compounds managing director David Outen has joined technical PVC compounds and dry blends manufacturer Dugdale as managing director. He rejoins one-time Doeflex Vinyl colleagues Richard Bickerton, Tom Durkin and John Salmon. Richard Bickerton and Tom Durkin bought Dugdale in 2001. Mr Durkin now moves from managing director to executive chairman while Mr Bickerton becomes non-executive director.
Basell plans new technology upgrade for PE plant August 20, 2006
A new polyethylene plant is to be built at Basell's Wesseling site in Germany for start up in 2008. It will use the Spherilene S single reactor gas phase process and will be converted from an existing 80,000 tonnes Lupotech G polyethylene plant.
Spherilene S technology is designed to produce products with narrow and medium molecular weight distribution. Both butene and hexene modified LLDPE can be produced as well as HDPE.
Dow links with Russian PU systems company August 20, 2006
Dow Chemical has joined with Russian polyurethane systems company Izolan in a joint venture providing customer-tailored polyurethane systems.
Dow Izolan will combine Dow's Polyurethane Systems business with Izolan's strong local customer focus to become, say the partners, the leading polyurethane systems company in Russia. It will have more than 100 employees, mainly from Izolan's current site in Vladimir, about 170 km north east of Moscow. The joint venture plans to build a new production plant in the Vladimir area within the next two years.
Borealis CFO to quit August 20, 2006
Chief financial officer of Borealis, Clive Watson, is leaving the group at the end of September to return to Britain as group finance director of Spectris, a supplier of precision instrumentation and controls. He has been with Borealis for five years. His interim successor will be Markku Korvenranta, vice president of business planning and analysis. Borealis will be looking outside for a new CFO.
New team to run Jubb August 20, 2006
A new management team has been appointed at blow moulder Jubb UK, which has been trading under new ownership since the end of last year.
Mike Clay, who spent the majority of his career with BXL and BP, becomes general manager. Another former BXL/BP man, qualified toolmaker Eddie Toon, becomes operation manager. Sales manager Mario Ciancio has undertaken a number of sales and marketing roles, most recently with RPC and prior to that Lawson Mardon.
Metal recycler buys control of Axion August 20, 2006
Metal recycling company S Norton & Co has acquired a majority shareholding in Axion Recycling. Norton's £3 million investment brings a 40,000 ft² facility at Salford, Manchester, which will be converted for the processing of recycled plastics, initially from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. It will have the potential to develop recycling routes for additional plastics from other sources in the future. Production capacity is expected to reach 14,000 tonnes per year at full output.
The Salford recycling operation will trade as Axion Polymers selling compounds of recycled polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene under the Axpoly brand-name.
Axion Recycling's consultancy operation will continue as a separate division.
Azelis buys Polymers Direct to expand in distribution August 20, 2006
Pan-European chemicals distributor Azelis Group has expanded its UK presence by buying plastics distributor Polymers Direct of Newbury. Azelis already owns Chance & Hunt and its subsidiary Pan Polymers. Azelis says Polymers Direct is 'directly compatible' with Pan Polymers, which operates from Watford, and 'the two companies will provide a strong platform for growth in the UK'.
Top changes at Broadwater August 20, 2006
The management of GRP moulder Broadwater Mouldings is changing on the retirement of managing director David Morphew. He is succeeded by Matthew Herbert who joined the company on the shop floor in 1986 and rose to become works director. Broadwater Mouldings is part of the P H Betts (Holdings) group.
Dow plans Chinese epoxy investment August 20, 2006
Dow Epoxy is planning to invest more than $200 million in China over the next five years. It is to build a 100,000 tonnes liquid epoxy resins plant at its existing site in Zhangjiagang, and a 150,000 tonnes epichlorohydrin plant at a soon-to-be-announced site, both expected to start up in 2009 - 2010.
At the same time, the company plans to expand the capacity of its converted epoxy resins plant in Zhangjiagang from its current 41,000 tonnes to 75,000 tonnes. And in another related move, Dow Epoxy will establish a global application development centre in China.
The epichlohydrin plant will be the first to use a new Dow proprietary glycerine-to-epichlorohydrin technology. Glycerine is a bio-renewable product generated during bio-diesel production and its use as the primary feedstock in ECH manufacturing brings cost and environmental advantages over the conventional process technologies.
Bayer passes million tonne mark for MDI August 20, 2006
Diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) capacity at Bayer MaterialScience has passed the million tonne mark as forecast when the company anounced plans to increase aniline production in 2004. The milestone was passed with the debottlenecking of the Krefeld-Uerdingen plant in Germany, adding a further 36,000 tonnes.
Englishman to head Bayer MaterialScience August 20, 2006
Former ICI Polyurethanes chief executive Patrick Thomas is the new board chairman of Bayer MaterialScience. After his time at ICI Polyurethanes British-born Mr Thomas was president of the
polyurethanes, performance and advanced materials divisions of Huntsman and in 2003 became corporate executive vice president of Huntsman Matlin Patterson. Since 2005 he has been working as a management consultant. Mr Thomas succeeds Dr Hagen Noerenberg who will retire on December 31 after 30 years with the Bayer Group.
PolyOne expands LSFOH compound capacity August 20, 2006
PolyOne is strengthening its position in wire and cable compounds with the installation of a line to make LSFOH compliant compounds at Pamplona in Spain. Production of ECCOH compounds is expected to start in October. PolyOne already makes LSFOH compounds at Melle in Germany.
The company says that as well as almost doubling its capacity for ECCOH compounds, the new line will bring greater flexibility for customers, with reduced lead-times resulting from releasing capacity on existing lines.
New PP plant planned for Russia August 20, 2006
A 200,000 tonnes polypropylene plant is to be built in Russia by CSJC Nizhnekamsk Refinery using Basell's Spherizone technology. The project is scheduled for completion in 2011. Spherizone technology plants can produce the full range of polypropylene grades, as well as new families of propylene-based polymers with enhanced product properties.
Glass giants to merge reinforcements operations August 20, 2006
Glass manufacturers Owens Corning of the USA and Saint-Gobain of France are planning to merge their reinforcements businesses. Saint Gobain's reinforcements business is part of its Vetrotex operation, and the combined company will be known as Owens-Corning Vetrotex Reinforcements.
It will have 10,000 employees and revenues of around Eur 1·5 billion. Some glass reinforcement operations will remain with the parent companies - Saint-Gobain's Textile Solutions business, serving mainly construction markets, will remain part of its High Performance Materials sector. Owens Corning's Veil Technologies and Fabwel businesses will remain part of the Owens Corning Composite Solutions Business.
The details of the merger are still to be finalised, but it is expected that Owens Corning would have a 60 per cent share and Saint-Gobain the remaining 40 per cent. After a minimum of four years, the joint venture provisions would give an option to Saint-Gobain to sell its 40 per cent stake to Owens Corning, and Owens Corning to buy the same. The transaction is expected to close by early 2007.
Incoe and Beaumont increase melt flow control co-operation August 20, 2006
Incoe Corporation and Beaumont Technologies have formed a closer co-operation in the development of injection moulding flow control devices. Beaumont's MeltFlipper device, which rotates and manipulates the melt flow in the tool to give more uniform cavity filling, is sold exclusively by Incoe under the name Opti-flo. Under the new agreement, Beaumont becomes an extension of Incoe's R & D effort for the further development of melt management technology in hot runner systems.
Incoe's backing allows the Beaumont organisation to accelerate development and increase its understanding of shear effects on injection moulded products.
PC is hard enough not to need hard coating August 20, 2006
A grade of polycarbonate which can be used for scratch-susceptible applications but without a secondary hard coating process has been developed by GE Plastics. Key pads, housings, and other wear parts for mobile phones, computers, and digital cameras are moulded in polycarbonate but have to be hard-coated to prevent abrasion and maintain a good surface appearance.
The new DMX is a co-polymer - GE does not say with what. The company says that in independent laboratory tests using the pencil hardness (1 kgf) standard, DMX grades achieved an H rating compared to a much lower 2B rating for ordinary PC - equivalent to up to five times the hardness of the standard material. They also surpassed painted ABS, PC/ABS, and other painted polymers, which only achieved a mid-range F rating. Further, if the Lexan DMX resin grades are hard-coated with silicone or acrylic, their pencil hardness increases to 3H.
Kraton to squeeze out more SBCs August 20, 2006
Kraton Polymers is planning a 20,000 tonnes increase in capacity for unhydrogenated styrenic block copolymers in Europe. Kraton has plants in The Netherlands, Germany and France, as well as in the United States, Brazil, and Japan. The expansion will come through improved productivity at existing sites.
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