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New PET cuts AA levels by 25 per cent October 31, 2006
A new generation of PET bringing enhanced bottle clarity, product purity, production and supply chain efficiencies and 'significant environmental benefits' has been developed by Eastman Chemical using its IntegRex technology. This is the process revealed by Eastman in 2004 which eliminates the solid state step in PET production with consequent reduction in energy use.
Eastman says that its new ParaStar PET makes PET bottles with 'unprecedented clarity', improved bottle-to-bottle consistency, and acetaldehyde levels lowered by 25 per cent or more - an attractive proposition for bottled water use. It becomes commercially available in North America at the start of next year.
ParaStar is a drop-in replacement for standard PET, so no equipment or process changes are needed. It is fully recyclable, and can be recycled with traditional PETs.
Second suitor for Polimoon October 31, 2006
The takeover bid for Polimoon by Norwegian-based Plast Holding has been trumped by Promens, part of Icelandic investment firm Atorka Group. Promens' offer is 18 per cent higher than that from Plast Holding's owner CapMan, valuing Polimoon at Eur 154 million.
Promens describes itself one of the largest roto-moulding groups in the world. The company operates 20 factories in 12 countries, in North America, Europe and Asia, and employs approximately 1,300 people. Its subsidiaries are Bonar Plastics in the USA and six countries in Europe, Plasti-Ned in Holland, Sæplast Dalvik and Tempra in Iceland, and Sæplast Iberia in Spain.
Chemtura sells Davis-Standard October 31, 2006
Chemtura has at last withdrawn from its involvement in American extrusion systems manufacturer Davis Standard. Davis-Standard was part of Crompton Corporation, which took over Great Lakes Chemical in 2005 to form Chemtura. Crompton had already tried to sell Davis-Standard, which was out of line with its main stream operation as a chemicals manufacturer.
At the time of the formation of Chemtura, Davis-Standard was pooled with Black Clawson Converting Machinery in a joint venture between Crompton/Chemtura and US investment group Hamilton Robinson, which in 2003 financed the management buy-out of Black Clawson Converting Machinery. Crompton/Chemtura was the majority shareholder in the new Davis-Standard company.
Now Davis-Standard has been acquired by its management and an investor group headed by Hamilton Robinson for around $80 million. The existing management team remains in place, and holds more than 20 per cent of the equity.
LG bids for supremacy in polypropylene October 30, 2006
LG International is to start selling polypropylene in Britain as its new plant in Oman comes on stream. The company will take 250,000 - 300,000 tonnes per year of the 340,000 tonnes capacity of the Oman Polypropylene plant - a 20:80 joint venture between LGI and the Oman Oil company - and plans to sell 100,000 tonnes of this into European markets.
Its target is to sell 20,000 tonnes of homopolymer in the UK within two years at 'competitive prices' and to become the largest stockist of PP homopolymer in the country.
LG's Luban material is made to a Novolen gas-phase technology licence from Novolen Technology Holdings, a joint venture company owned 80 per cent by ABB and 20 per cent by Equistar. Initial grades will be for the injection moulding, BOPP (fibre), extrusion, thermoforming and film sectors. Products will be offered in a range of melt flow indices to suit specific applications including household appliances, furniture, closures, thin-walled packaging, tape yarns, monofilaments, strapping, non-woven spunbonded, OPP and cast films.
All the materials will be held in stock in the UK ready for delivery within 48 hours in bulk loads or 1·25 tonne pallet lots of 25 kg bags. Europe-wide technical support is already in place.
Bayer joins in Dubai PU systems operation October 30, 2006
A joint venture polyurethane systems operation has been set up in the Middle East by Bayer MaterialScience and Pearl Insulation Materials Industries of Dubai. The new BaySystems Pearl will be a full polyurethanes systems provider with emphasis on supporting customers in the construction industry and oil and gas extraction, where rigid polyurethane foam is used on a large scale for thermal insulation.
Another non-core Rexam food pack business to go October 29, 2006
Rexam is planning to sell its refillable PET bottle business Rexam Petainer, based in Sweden and the Czech Republic. The company says that this is a regional business focused on the Scandinavian and German markets. It has a minor position in the overall plastic bottle market and Rexam believes that it would be better to focus resources on segments that more closely fit its global strategy. Last year's sales amounted to £34 m. Earlier this year Rexam sold three other non-global food packaging businesses based at Yate in Bristol, and in Denmark and Sweden.
Scottish bag ban is dead, but still won't lie down October 29, 2006
Scottish MP Mike Pringle has abandoned his proposal to implement a punitive tax on carrier bags in Scotland, saying that the debate resulting from the proposal itself has achieved much to improve the use of carrier bags. Instead, the Parliament is to draw up a code of practice to cut the number of bags given away by retailers, with the threat of legislation if the code did not bring a reduction.
The bill, proposing a 10 p levy on supermarket carrier bags, was finally rejected by the Parliament's environment committee at the end of last month but Mr Pringle vowed at the time to fight on and put it before the full Parliament.
Now he has accepted that the bill stood no chance, and with the agreement of the Parliament's environment minister to look at the issue of bags within the Scottish Executive's waste minimisation strategy, he has dropped his plan to put it before the full Parliament. Well, nearly. He did add the rider: 'If I'm not satisfied the minister has tackled this seriously, I will be forced to re-introduce my bill and the Scottish Parliament would then have to consider this legislation.'
The Packaging and Industrial Films Association has reluctantly backed the Scottish plan for a code of practice to reduce bag consumption. Chief executive David Tyson commented: 'In spite of the fact that our industry has most to lose by participating in voluntary means of reduction, we support such an option as the alternative is having our industry decimated by ill-conceived legislation for no good environmental reason. So we will continue to encourage good environmental practice such as "reduce, re-use and recycle" provided that Government and retailers use the code as an opportunity to educate consumers on the real facts about plastic bags - including the wider benefits of plastic in society.'
PolyOne to buy Chinese PVC compounder October 29, 2006
PolyOne Corporation is to buy a Chinese PVC compounder as part of its strategy to accelerate growth in Asia. It is to buy the vinyl compounding subsidiary of Ngai Hing Hong Company. The current shareholders of Ngai Hing Hong will retain 5 per cent of a new company that PolyOne will set up to conduct vinyl compound business in Asia. PolyOne will also take a stake in Ngai Hing Hong Company.
The acquisition will give PolyOne its first PVC plant in China, at Dongguan, in the Guangdong province of South China. It already has three other plants making products for its Engineered Materials, Color and Additives, and Polymer
Coating Systems businesses.
Rexam finalises thinwall disposals October 24, 2006
The thinwall packaging plants in Sweden and Denmark put up for sale by Rexam in July are being bought by Polimoon. The Yate, Bristol, plant was bought by Sharp Interpack in September.
The Swedish and Danish plants make packaging for dairy products and food service items, and the Swedish plant also makes vending cups. Polimoon plans an investment programme to improve efficiency and increase product development at both plants, and anticipates use of its existing European distribution network increasing sales.
The Swedish and Danish businesses have sales of around Eur 60 million with approximately 360 employees generating an EBITDA profit of Eur 2·7 million and a pre-tax break-even. Polimoon is paying Eur 10·75 million. No price was put on the sale of the Yate business, which employs 150 people and makes poultry trays and punnets, but Rexam says it sold the three businesses for £25 million.
Sales and orders rise for K-M as production efficiency increases October 24, 2006
Sales and orders for Krauss-Maffei equipment in all three of its divisions - injection moulding, extrusion and reaction processing - increased in the company's 2005/2006 financial year. Sales were up for the fifth year in succession at Eur 560 million - Eur 9 million up on 2004/2005, while orders rose 10 per cent to around Eur 595 million.
The growth came in Europe and the Americas: the company's Asian business weakened. The extrusion division showed the sharpest increase, buoyed by 'surging demand' for pipe and profile systems for Turkey's booming home building industry. Krauss-Maffei also achieved major orders for extrusion machinery from customers in Russia, the CIS states and North America. Demand for injection moulding machines in Western and Eastern Europe and in North and South America grew steadily, and the reaction machinery division strengthened its market share in Eastern Europe, North and South America, Japan and China.
During the past year K-M has streamlined the way it builds its machines. A flow-line system for 800 to 1,600 tonnes injection moulding machines was started up in May and a new construction hall layout was adopted for extrusion and reaction processing equipment, streamlining production, shortening logistic and information paths and solving previous problems of shortage of space. The company has also completed the integration of the Neureder automation company and is working to boost the ratio of injection moulding machines supplied as automated cells.
Further improvements to production efficiency are planned for the coming year, with a flow-line system for the pre-production stages of the CX injection machine range and the adoption of a flow-line system for extrusion equipment. Continued expansion of the tooling section is planned for the reaction machinery division to increase its supply of systems.
PET bottle demand breaks records for Husky October 24, 2006
PET bottle preforms gave Husky's moulds and systems operation a record year in 2006. Orders increased more than 30 per cent as demand for applications in bottled water, aseptic juices, hot-filled teas and sports drinks grew at double-digit rates.
The company says that PET still accounts for less than 40 per cent of all beverage packaging, 'so there is lots of room for our industry to grow'.
Bayer buys Taiwanese TPU producer October 23, 2006
Bayer MaterialScience is now claiming to be the world's biggest supplier and solutions provider of thermoplastic polyurethane resins and films with the acquisition of Taiwan's Ure-Tech Group, the largest TPU producer in the Asia Pacific region. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be closed in the first quarter of 2007.
The purchase price is not being disclosed. 2005 sales of the Ure-Tech Group were around $55 million with approximately 180 employees. Sales of Bayer MaterialScience's Thermoplastic Polyurethanes Business Unit were some $240 million last year with around 450 employees.
Bayer says that the acquisition will enable it to tap into the significant growth potential for TPU in the Asia Pacific region, especially China, and to accelerate its global growth in the TPU market. In 2005, the total TPU resins and films market was worth about Eur 1·2 billion.
When the deal goes through Bayer MaterialScience will have six TPU resins and two films production facilities in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. Four of these are in Taichung, Taiwan; Shenzhen in Southern China; Cuddalore, India; and Osaka, Japan (a joint venture with Dainippon Ink & Chemicals). The other four are in West Virginia, USA; Massachusetts, USA; and in Dormagen and Bomlitz in Germany.
Riverside directors take full ownership October 23, 2006
The directors of Riverside Plastics, the South-Wales based bottle manufacturer, have bought the 30 per cent of the company owned by 3i. 3i took the stake in 1991 on the formation of the company. Now directors John Lewis, Graham McKenzie and John Watkin own the whole company in equal proportions.
Morton takes over at PVC Group October 23, 2006
New managing director of PVC Group in Chinley, Derbyshire, is Gary Morton, former chief executive of Deceuninck UK and more latterly charity fund raiser. PVC Group's founder, Duncan Makin, becomes group chairman. Privately owned PVC Group was founded 30 years ago and has developed into a raw materials-to-recycling organisation. Its companies provide raw materials, compounds, trade extrusion and moulding, polyethylene film conversion and plastics recycling. The Group also has its own PVC-U window and door systems.
Ciba expands high temperature flame retardant capacity October 23, 2006
Increasing demand for halogen-free flame retardants has led Ciba Specialty Chemicals to open a new plant at its Lampertheim, Germany site to make Melapur 200 melamine polyphosphate. Melapur 200 was originally developed to work at the high processing temperatures associated with compounding glass fibre reinforced polyamides. But its high thermal stability and low water solubility have brought applications in other polymer substrates, either on its own or as a synergistic component in flame retardant formulations.
Polimoon to become privately owned again October 19, 2006
Nordic packaging producer Polimoon is being bought by private equity investor CapMan. CapMan has already secured 60 per cent of Polimoon's shares on the Oslo stock market through a Norwegian subsidiary. The company says: 'While Polimoon has experienced strong growth as a listed company [it floated in April 2005], we believe that the future prospects will be improved as a private company.'
CapMan says it intends to continue the organisation and strategy of Polimoon in its current form and its takeover would not have any consequences on daily operations.
Polimoon was spun off from Dyno in 1999 and changed its name from Dynoplast to Polimoon the same year. It bought Fibrenyle in the UK in 2003 and currently has 28 plants in 13 European countries employing 2,765 people. The group makes packaging for use across a number of sectors using injection and blow moulding and thermoforming. It has bought a number of companies across Europe in recent years, most recently acquiring the French Plastohm group which pushed its turnover up to in excess of Eur 500 million.
Teknor Apex to make TPEs in Europe October 19, 2006
US-based compounder Teknor Apex has stepped up the worldwide availabilty of its TPE materials with a new European sales and support structure, a proposed plant in China, and a plan to make TPEs in Europe.
The new European sales and support office is at the company's UK subsidiary Chem Polymer - Teknor Apex bought the former BIP engineering plastics business at the beginning of last year. It is headed by Nick Sandland, who has spent 10 years as a technical service manager for Zeon Europe's range of elastomers and joined Chem Polymer earlier this year.
Teknor Apex entered the Far Eastern market in 2001 when it bought Singapore Polymer Corporation, which now compounds the full range of TPEs in Singapore.
The company's aim is to be able to supply global companies anywhere in the world with locally produced materials to identical specifications. To that end it plans to open its European plant in 2008 - it is being coy about where the plant will be, and the Chem Polymer Oldbury site is not the only possibility - and says that at about the same time it will start up a TPE plant in China.
Teknor Apex supplies TPE compounds under six trade names that represent different technologies, including di- and tri-block hydrogenated styrene block copolymers (Tekron, Elexar, and Monprene), thermoplastic polyolefin blends (Telcar), thermoplastic vulcanisates (Uniprene), and over-moulding compositions designed to bond to diverse polar substrates (Tekbond).
Vita invests in clean TPEs October 19, 2006
A fourth production line has been built at British Vita's Thermoplastic Elastomer Compounding Group plant at Åmål in Sweden at a cost of £2·6 million, increasing capacity by 4,000 tonnes and pushing group capacity over 35,000 tonnes.
The new line will be dedicated to the production of clean compounds including the group's Mediprene range of TPEs for medical devices. It consists of a Berstorff twin screw extruder with 10 gravimetric feeders. All raw materials are transported automatically by a robot crane and a series of roll-boats, reducing forklift handling by 80 per cent. The production process is controlled by a series of computer systems connected to one operator terminal, providing the operator with full access to trend curves, formulations, machine parameters and test results for batch to batch consistency.
Solvay goes head to head with Victrex over PEEK October 19, 2006
Output from the Indian PEEK plant bought from Gharda Chemicals by Solvay at the end of last year is to be cranked up with the release of a commercial series of PEEK grades, and a new plant to make them in. But in a thrown gauntlet to Victrex, Solvay says it is using the same technology as Victrex to produce an equivalent material to the market leader, rather than the technology it bought from Gharda.
Initially the new KetaSpire PEEK and AvaSpire 'PEEK-based polymer formulations' will be produced at Solvay Advanced Polymers' pilot plant at Alpharetta in Georgia, USA with necessarily limited availability. But a plant with an initial capacity of 500 tonnes of KetaSpire is being built at the former Gharda site at Panoli in Gujarat State in India, and production there is expected to start in the first quarter of 2008. The plant capacity will be capable of being doubled.
The technology used for the new PEEK seems at odds with Solvay's purchase of the Gharda product. Gharda actively promoted its Gatone PEEK as being made with a proprietary electrophilic process which gave it production cost benefits over the market-leading former ICI Victrex PEEK. However Solvay says KetaSpire is based on nucleophilic chemistry, 'the same technology used in the market's leading PEEK product' and caps that with the claim of 'equivalent performance and processability to industry's leading offering'. Solvay's nucleophilic technology actually pre-dates ICI's development of PEEK in 1981 and goes back to Amoco's developments in sulphone polymers in the 1970s.
Solvay has had its PEEK products under development for some 18 months and regardless of the Gharda purchase 'we were coming out with it one way or another'. What the Gharda takeover did for Solvay was to inject experience of working with PEEK in a commercial environment. It also, of course, took a player out of a newly growing market - at the time Solvay bought the Gharda business, Degussa was planning commercial scale PEEK production through its Chinese joint venture.
KetaSpire and AvaSpire join Solvay's SolvaSpire Ultra Polymers family of advanced plastics which also include Torlon polyamide-imide, EpiSpire high temperature polysulphone and PrimoSpire SRP (self-reinforced polyphenylene), formerly Parmax, which Solvay bought from US development company Maxdem earlier this year.
KetaSpire is initially being offered in unfilled and glass and carbon fibre reinforced grades, as is the AvaSpire compound of PEEK and other unspecified polymers.
Nylon bonds to EPDM October 19, 2006
A process for making hard-soft components combining nylon and EPDM without an adhesion promoter has been unveiled by Degussa. It says that previously nylons could only be moulded together with
x-NBR, HNBR, FKM and AEM rubbers. But now its adhesion-modified PA 612 compound Vestamid DX9324 can bond with EPDM, opening potential in vehicle components. The two materials can be injected together in a two-component process, and the peroxide vulcanisation of the rubber forms not only carbon-carbon bonds, but also amide groups, which give a permanent bond.
Eliminating the adhesion promoter removes a process step and enables the moulding process to be automated, which Degussa says can lead to cost savings of 30 per cent.
New German machine puts Porcas back into blow moulding October 19, 2006
A new range of blow moulding machines from Germany has gone on sale in the UK. The Extraplast machines are built at the former Fischer plant in Troisdorf. The company has for some time supplied spare parts and service for machines supplied by Fischer and SIG Blowtec as well as rebuilding used machines. It has now expanded and produces custom-made blow moulding machines for special applications in packaging and technical moulding. These are based on a standard range and can be configured, for example, with a 3 layer accumulator head to produce L-Ring drums with a central layer of recycled material.
The Extraplast machines are being imported by Proma Machinery, the company set up by Graham Porcas, the former managing director of the Kautex subsidiary in Britain when Kautex pulled out of the UK a year ago.
Carpet contractor sets up recycling plant October 19, 2006
Have you ever been to an exhibition and wondered what happens to all the carpet from the aisles and stands after the show? Well, around 12 million m² of carpet are dumped every year by the exhibitions and events industry, which puts a strain on land fill.
Now Reeds Carpeting of Coventry, which says it is the largest independent events carpeting contractor in the UK, has set up a project to reuse the scrap carpet as moulding material. With the help of the Polymer Cluster it has developed a polypropylene cord carpet for exhibition use, and set up Reeds Carpet Recycling to reclaim it. Full production is expected by early 2007 with the plant initially recycling the 850 tonnes of scrap that Reed creates annually, but it has plans eventually to take in waste carpet from other contractors.
Improved production of PUR reactive adhesives October 19, 2006
A semi-continuous reaction process for manufacturing polyurethane hot melt reactive adhesives has been developed by Rosehill Polymers, which says the process 'is set to replace outdated and inadequate techniques which have so far limited growth in the sector'.
A PUR hot melt adhesive is a moisture curing material which is thermoplastic in its uncured state. It is melted to be applied and forms a bond when it solidifies. It can be re-melted to break the bond or reposition joints as necessary. However, it differs from conventional thermoplastic hot melt adhesives in that after undergoing a reaction with atmospheric moisture it becomes a thermoset material that cannot be re-melted.
Rosehill has developed continuous reactor technology over several years and can now produce prepolymers at a rate of 1,000 kg in 13 minutes with only one operator. The flow reactor takes products straight from bulk storage and mixes them under intense conditions, generating the correct excess of isocyanate groups. This in turn provides better 'capping' of the polyols, tighter molecular weight distribution, lower melt viscosity and better crystallisation rates. The process is now being applied to PUR adhesives for which Rosehill says it produces a better product and generates less waste than other PUR manufacturing systems, reducing cleaning requirements and the use of solvents.
The flexibility of the process means that the company can meet customer requirements more quickly, even where a large number of small batches are needed, which is bringing more export opportunities as an increasing number of European countries, notably Holland, Belgium and Germany, are anxious to replace solvent-based adhesives with PURs.
BPF offers energy bulk purchase scheme October 19, 2006
An energy procurement scheme for plastics businesses has been set up by the British Plastics Federation. It has linked with energy purchasing and management consultancy Inenco to offer the scheme which it says is designed to reduce risk premium, lower underlying energy costs and improve supplier service for BPF members. Inenco is already buying around £500 m worth of energy per year.
UK colour measurement offices combine October 19, 2006
The GetagMacbeth UK sales office at Preston Brook in Cheshire has been closed as part of the takeover by X-Rite. Sales of the company's colour measurement equipment have been transferred to the X-Rite UK sales office at Poynton, also in Cheshire.
Husky and Engel increase E European support October 19, 2006
Two major injection moulding machine companies have opened new premises to give further support in Eastern Europe.
Husky Injection Molding Systems has opened a sales office in Vienna which will serve as a gateway to Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to customers in Austria, the Vienna office will service Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.
Engel, already based in Austria, has taken a step further east with the opening of a service centre in Prague in the Czech Republic, which it describes as 'one of the most important Engel construction projects in recent years'. The new centre houses Engel Czechia which has operated since 1990 but has outgrown its previous premises. With 33 employees, of which 17 are service engineers, Engel Czechia is the largest subsidiary in the Engel organisation. Engel's Polish office, established in 2002, is also being rehoused in a new building due to be completed by the end of the year.
Honeywell plans caprolactam increase October 19, 2006
A 10 per cent increase in caprolactam production is planned by Honeywell Resins & Chemicals in the USA to meet global demand from nylon producers, especially in China, where demand rose from 500,000 tonnes in 2002 to more than 700,000 tonnes in 2005. Demand there is expected to outstrip regional supply by 2011.
The expansion is at Honeywell's Hopewell facility in Virginia, which reckons to be the world's biggest single caprolactam plant and currently has a capacity of more than 340,000 tonnes.
EU approves state aid for Bavarian ethylene pipe October 19, 2006
The European Commission has approved a subsidy for the building of an ethylene pipeline in Southern Germany linking existing Western European networks and 'inland islands' in Central Europe. It has endorsed a grant from the German Land of Bavaria for up to Eur 44·85 million, 29·9 per cent of the cost of the project - a revision of the original Eur 70 million support for the earlier Eur 140 million projected cost.
The 375 km pipeline will be built between Ludwigshafen and Münchsmünster by the Ethylene Pipeline Süd consortium of BASF, Borealis, Clariant, OMV, Ruhr Oel, Vinnolit and Wacker. The approval was given after an in-depth investigation into the potential distortion of competition the pipeline would bring in the rest of the EU as the aid appeared primarily to benefit the petrochemical industry in Bavaria. The German government convinced the Commission that the pipeline would form a crucial connection between existing networks and various 'islands of industry', as well as between Western Europe and further pipelines in Central and Eastern Europe.
Additives plant planned for Turkey October 19, 2006
A plant for acrylic impact modifiers and processing aids is to be built in Turkey by Rohm and Haas to meet local demand. The company has signed a letter of intent with Polisan, its partner in paint emulsion manufacturing, to build the plant at Polisan's site in Gebze. Eventual capacity will be 40,000 tonnes.
Speciality polycarbonates to be made in Europe October 19, 2006
New plant for speciality grades of polycarbonate will treble output of GE Plastics' xtreme Lexan and bring a local source of supply to Europe. GE is to invest Eur 62 million at its Lexan plant in Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands to make Lexan EXL, SLX, DMX and XHT copolymers. It expects one benefit for European customers to be shorter delivery times. Production is expected to start in the summer of 2007.
The specific characteristics of the four grades are: EXL - high ductility and impact performance in temperatures down to -60 degC; SLX - long-term weatherability and UV resistance; XHT - resistance higher then standard polycarbonate resins with Tg up from 165 to 220 degC; DMX - improved scratch resistance with H pencil hardness bringing the potential to eliminate painting or coating.
SMS sells Battenfeld injection and hires former MPM chairman October 15, 2006
The Battenfeld injection moulding machine business is being sold to German capital investment company Adcuram, which bought the Kautex blow moulding machinery business from SIG in 2004.
Over the past year Battenfeld, one of the oldest names in the injection machine business, has undergone a major rationalisation. It has closed the Meinerzhagen plant in Germany where it built machines for more than 50 years and retrenched to its Kottingbrunn, Austria, factory, at the same time withdrawing from the 1,000 tonnes and above market for which Kottingbrunn could not build machines. According to parent company SMS, 'Battenfeld Kunststoffmaschinen has transformed into a globally leading supplier of injection moulding technology' and now it is being sold.
SMS has tried to sell Battenfeld before. It went spectacularly wrong in 1999 when in October at the Interplas exhibition SMS announced a sale to Madison Capital Partners of the USA. By Christmas the deal was off. Believers in the fates may see an unfortunate coincidence in the timing of the current announcement on the eve of another major plastics exhibition, Fakuma. Adcuram has itself had its disappointments in plastics machinery. Soon after it bought Kautex in 2004 it was crying foul and demanding to cancel the contract.
Coincidental with the sale of the injection moulding business has been the appointment to the SMS board with responsibility for its plastics machinery businesses of Pepyn Dinandt. Until July 31 he was responsible for three injection moulding machinery companies as chairman of Mannesmann Plastics Machinery. He left soon after MPM was sold to Battenfeld's old suitor, Madison Capital Partners. Mr Dinandt's task at SMS is 'to further develop the Plastics Technology Business Area within a limited time frame in order to maximize potential for further options for the SMS group'.
The SMS plastics machinery business is now focused fully on extrusion - where it wanted to be when it rationalised its reasons for wanting to sell the injection moulding business in 1999. Its Battenfeld extrusion business is in pipe and profile and compounding and Battenfeld Gloucester is in film and sheet. Alongside these it has the American Maplan company making pipe and profile equipment and Cincinnati Extrusion in Austria - the former Cincinnati Milacron business which SMS bought in 2000 soon after the injection machinery sale fell through. There are also operations in both areas in China.
Eastman sells out of polyethylene October 15, 2006
Eastman is to sell its polyethylene business to Westlake Chemical Corporation, a US-based producer of LD/LLD/HDPE, PVC, styrene monomer and other petrochemicals. Eastman is pulling out of polyethylene because it is uncompetitive in ethylene, although it is retaining other olefins derivatives.
The sale includes Eastman's polyethylene and Epolene polymer businesses - three polyethylene plants and an Epolene polyethylene waxes facility at Eastman's Texas Operations in Longview, and an ethylene pipeline between Mont Belvieu, Texas, and the Texas Operations site. The sale price is $255 million. The businesses and assets being sold generated approximately $680 million during 2005. The sale is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
US researchers cut the complexity and cost of polymerisation October 15, 2006
A new way of making plastics using less energy and reaction catalyst is claimed by researchers at
the University of Pennsylvania in the USA. Instead of polymerising by transferring inner sphere electrons - those deep within the cloud of electrons surrounding an atom - the team led by Professor Virgil Percec has developed its Single Electron Transfer-Living Radical Polymerization process to transfer outer sphere electrons. The resulting polymers are said to have the same properties as with current polymerisation processes, but polymerisation can take place at room temperature, is quicker, there is less need to continually add catalyst, so there is no need to purify the polymers to remove the catalyst.
RTP increases focus on speciality TPEs October 15, 2006
US-based speciality compound producer RTP Company has turned its thermoplastic elastomer operations into a separate division. As with its rigid plastics compounds RTP expects to produce TPEs with properties not normally found in standard materials, and anticipates TPE compounds with conductive and wear resistant enhancements.
To support the new division RTP is investing in new testing and manufacturing equipment and has opened a new research laboratory.
More capacity planned for BASF plasticiser October 15, 2006
BASF is to increase capacity for its Hexamoll DINCH plasticiser to 100,000 tonnes a year at its Ludwigshafen, Germany, site. Hexamoll was introduced in 2002 as an alternative to phthalate plasticisers for use in sensitive PVC applications such as children's toys and medical products. BASF now sees further potential in food contact applications including cling film and sealants.
New vinyls boss at Arkema October 15, 2006
The new executive vice president in charge of Arkema's Vinyl Product Segment is Otto Takken, since 2004 managing director of the Alphacan business unit, who succeeds Philippe Pernot. Jean-Luc Beal becomes managing director of the Alphacan pipes and profiles business unit, where he was manager of the European pipes business.
Ciba sells masterbatch business to Clariant October 4, 2006
Clariant is to buy Ciba Specialty Chemicals' masterbatch business to strengthen its position in colour and additive concentrates for plastic products - particularly in the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The business employs around 300 people in France, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia and has annual sales of some Eur 50 million.
Ciba is selling the business to focus on its core operations: plastic additives and pigments, coating effects and water and paper treatment.
No price has been put on the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year.
Wood plastic composites could be based on nylon October 4, 2006
A technology for making wood/plastic composites said to be stronger and less expensive than any others available has been developed at the College of Forestry at Oregon State University in the USA. It also enables wood to be compounded with higher melt temperature plastics.
Associate professor Kaichang Li says the use of WPCs has been limited because of high cost and low strength, a result of inadequate adhesion between the wood fibres and the plastic. This is because wood and plastic are like oil and water, and do not mix well. Wood is hydrophilic - it absorbs water - and plastic is hydrophobic, repelling it. A compatibiliser, typically a polymer that bridges the interface between the wood and plastic in these products, improves stress transfer and increases their strength and stiffness.
The university has developed new compatibilisers and a new mixing technology which enables wood to be mixed with polymers such as nylons, which have melting temperatures higher than the wood degradation temperature. The ability to combine wood and nylon offers a new use for reclaimed carpet fibres which might otherwise go to landfill. It also offers potential for a local problem, improved utilisation of low-grade woody biomass from thinning of the Oregon forests to improve forest health and prevent fires.
So far, the research has only been done at a laboratory scale. The university now has the option to research at a more industrial scale, with the contribution an extruder from Entek, itself an Oregon company, which has a market niche in wood/plastic compounding equipment.
A local start-up company, Sustainable Industries Group, is also supporting the research and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute has provided support to get the new equipment installed, which also has the capability to produce nanocomposite materials.
Another project still in its research phase is to use cellulose crystals from wood in rubber products such as tyres as a replacement for silica, which can create waste disposal concerns.
Dai Nippon enters biopolymer business October 4, 2006
Biomass-sourced polymers have now been commercialised for packaging applications by Dai Nippon Printing Co in Japan. There are two types, a material derived from polylactic acid and petroleum and another material derived from polylactic acid and a biodegradable petroleum product. Both are 10 - 30 per cent plant-derived, and have obtained the Japanese JORA certification for biomass materials. Dai Nippon is currently demonstrating the materials at Tokyo Pack 2006, and says it aims to produce a 50 per cent plant-based material in the future.
Delleve aims for food-grade rPET October 4, 2006
Plastics recycler JFC Delleve is is to install a PET hot wash facility at its St Helens plant in Lancashire and plans to produce food packaging-grade recycled PET. The equipment, from Sorema in Italy, will be installed in November at a cost of around £2 million and should be operational by the end of January. Delleve currently operates a cold wash facility for PET.
The company, which is based in Ireland, anticipates selling its rPET in the UK: at present most of its recycled PET is sold abroad.
In addition to the new washing plant, Delleve is to install new bottle granulating equipment capable of handling 2½ tonnes/hour, which should increase its annual throughput from 13,000 to 20,000 tonnes.
SABIC to buy Huntsman's UK polyolefins business October 1, 2006
SABIC is to buy Huntsman Petrochemicals (UK), including the yet-to-be-completed 400,000 tonnes LDPE plant at Wilton on Teesside, scheduled to come on stream by the end of 2007. Earlier this year SABIC put on hold a similarly-sized plant at Geleen in Holland. Included in the Huntsman assets - bought from ICI in 1999 - are an 865,000 tonnes ethylene/400,000 tonnes propylene cracker and 1·3 million tonnes aromatics facilities at Wilton and North Tees.
The Huntsman business will add substantial capacity to SABIC Europe, which grew out of the takeover of DSM's petrochemical business in 2002 and operates sites in Geleen, Holland and Gelsenkirchen, Germany. For Huntsman it means continued departure from its commodity businesses to concentrate on specialities - during this year the company sold its US butadiene and MTBE business and bought Ciba's Textile Effects division.
The $700 million transaction is expected to close by the end of 2006 and all 850 employees will transfer to SABIC. Huntsman's Teesside-based pigments division and the Wilton-based aniline and nitrobenzene operations of its polyurethanes division are not included in the sale.
Husky to close Coventry centre October 1, 2006
Husky's palatial technical centre in Coventry is to close. Husky Injection Molding Systems is to relocate its UK operation to a smaller sales office while increasing its service and sales presence with more personnel for local customer support.
Larger scale projects will be carried out at the company's European headquarters at Dudelange in Luxembourg where Husky has been increasing its facilities. Among the machines available for product development are a new in-line compounding system for fibre-reinforced parts, a Quadloc Tandem Index system for large automotive applications such as window glazing and overmoulded panels, a Tandem for matched applications such as door panels and a HyMET for magnesium moulding.
Husky plans an automotive open house at Dudelange in November.
Husky increased orders, sales and net income in its last full year ending July 31. Compared with 2004 - 2005 orders were up 14 per cent, sales by 8·75 per cent while net income rose elevenfold. Pre-tax profit rose 28 per cent to $101·5 million.
Wittmann adds KUKA robots October 1, 2006
Robot manufacturers Wittmann and KUKA have joined forces with an exclusive agency agreement for Wittmann UK to sell KUKA six-axis robots into the plastics industry. Wittmann already sells Kawasaki and Toshiba robots, and the addition of the KUKA range increases the payload for which six-axis machines can be supplied.
The 3rd generation of KUKA robots is aimed particularly at manufacturers of larger mouldings, making crates, chairs, computer housings, white goods components and other items in the >10 kg shot field. They have lighter robot arms, reduced floor space requirement, less overhead space and a larger envelope depth to the front and below for demoulding and setting down of parts.
Wittmann UK says it will be the exclusive integrator for the KUKA range in the UK.
EU levies anti-dumping duties on Asian plastic bags October 1, 2006
The European Union has gone ahead with its plan to impose anti-dumping duties on plastic bags from China and Thailand, and, as expected, has excluded Malaysia from the tariff.
A 15 months investigation by the EU into imports of bags from the three countries showed that in 2004 they exported 430,000 tonnes of bags to Europe - around 80 per cent of all plastic sacks and bags imported into the Community. China accounted for around 235,000 tonnes, Malaysia 125,000 tonnes and Thailand 68,000 tonnes. Duties of between 4·8 and 28·8 per cent have been levied on Chinese importers and between 5·1 and 14·3 per cent on Thai companies. Malaysian producers were considered to be below the 2 per cent dumping level and so no anti-dumping duty has been levied.
The anti-dumping duties will remain in place for five years - a period that was insufficient to encourage investment by European manufacturers, according to the Packaging and Industrial Films Association when the proposal to impose duties was made in July.
Scots say no to plastic bag tax - again October 1, 2006
The plan to impose a 10 per cent punitive tax on supermarket plastic bags in Scotland has nearly been laid to rest. The bill seemed doomed to failure last December but was given until September this year for 'clarification'. A meeting of the Scottish Parliament's Environment and Rural Affairs Committee last week unanimously rejected the bill which it thought would have 'a number of unintended consequences' and would not achieve its aim of reducing litter and landfill. The bill's proposer, Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Pringle, is now to try for a full Parliament vote.
Dow pursues polyols from plants aim October 1, 2006
Natural oil polyols derived from soya are to be sampled by customers of Dow Polyurethanes and the company anticipates development scale production in 2007.
Dow says it is now able to make polyols from natural oils that can match or exceed the performance of hydrocarbon-based products, and at fairly high levels of natural oil polyol content. Early trials with NOPs showed problems with retaining tensile strength, resilience, and compression set, and as the level of NOPs in polyurethane formulations increased, the processability of the foam was often compromised. Now Dow says it has overcome these problems by blending NOPs with propylene oxide polyols.
Dow's 2015 Sustainability Goals target calls for investment in products and technologies that will help reduce industry's dependence on non-renewable resources. Natural oil polyols can be made from soya beans, sunflower seeds or rapeseeds, although Dow's technology currently focuses on a polyol that contains a significant proportion of oil extracted from soya beans. The company intends to develop a NOP-based product line for applications such as flexible slab, moulded, and some CASE applications, and Dow Automotive is working with customers to introduce natural oil polyols into automotive applications.
PP compounding line to process 72 tonnes/hour October 1, 2006
A polypropylene compounding line with a capacity of 72 tonnes/hour and bigger still than its previous biggest is being built by Coperion Werner & Pfleiderer for a plant in the Near East.
The line is based on a 380 mm twin screw compounder with a total power output of 19 MW. The Suprex planetary gear unit combines the outputs of a 14 MW fixed speed motor and a 5 MW variable speed motor, making screw speeds of between 193 and 276 RPM possible. This gives the compounder a wide operating window, permitting the compounding and pelletising of PP grades of varying viscosity at high throughput rates.
To handle the high throughput the company has uprated the downstream systems on the line. Immediately downstream of the compounding extruder is the enlarged SWZ 21000 screen changer, which permits a fully automatic screen change - 21,000 cm² effective filtration area - while the plant is running. The high-capacity UG 925 underwater pelletiser is being used for the first time with PP. This is based on the UG 1000, a pelletiser already used in PE applications, and is equipped with an intensively heated pelletising die.
Delivery and commissioning is planned for the second half of 2007.
New chief executive at Rexam October 1, 2006
The new chief executive of Rexam is Leslie Van de Walle, currently executive vice president of global retail of the Royal Dutch Shell Group and before that chief executive of United Biscuits. He is also a non executive director of Aegis. Mr Van de Walle succeeds Lars Emilson on his retirement on February 1 next year.
Arkema to expand Chinese high performance nylon production October 1, 2006
High performance nylon capacity in China is to be doubled by Arkema to meet demands for applications such as air brake and fuel lines for transportation and textiles. The company is to expand its Changsu site with the increased capacity coming on stream by September 2007. This month Arkema is starting production of its Rilsan PA11 and 12 at Changsu to meet the increase in local demand.
Dow plans MDI and Styrofoam expansion October 1, 2006
'A significant increase in global MDI capacity' is planned by Dow Polyurethanes with the expansion of its Estarreja, Portugal, site. Dow puts global demand growth for MDI at 6 to 7 per cent annually with current demand at around 4 million tonnes. The company brought a new PMDI facility on line at Freeport in Texas, USA, in May this year.
Dow is also planning to increase capacity for its Styrofoam cellular polystyrene building insulation products.
West Pharma invests in China and Cornwall October 1, 2006
US-based drug delivery specialist West Pharmaceutical is to invest some $80 million in two new plants in China, and is also reported to be expanding its Bodmin, Cornwall site.
In China the company plans a new plastic injection moulding plant for 2009 completion to make infusion bottle closures, and has entered a joint venture with a local medical rubber manufacturer for a new rubber components plant scheduled for 2011.
The Bodmin expansion involves doubling the size of the tooling facility.
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