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Battenfeld Gloucester finally leaves SMS October 30, 2007
The Battenfeld Gloucester film and sheet machinery business which was the only plastics machinery business left at the SMS Group in Germany after the rest of Battenfeld's extrusion equipment businesses were sold in March has been sold, effective from today. The buyer is Mousam Ventures, which has backed a management buy out, with all senior managers at the company investing.
Mousam Ventures describes itself as a private equity firm that 'works more like an operating company' with no plans to sell the business on. It is owned by John Sharood and Dick Murphy, who bought the Eurotherm Gauging business from Invensys and ran it as EGS Gauging, before selling it last year to Thermo-Fischer. With the proceeds, and some additional investment, they set up Mousam Ventures with the aim of investing in the polymer industry. Gloucester Engineering - the 'Battenfeld' had already been dropped from the sign on the company's stand at K2007 before the sale announcement - is Mousam's first investment, and while it would continue buying further, it is not actively seeking another purchase.
Sharood and Murphy knew Gloucester Engineering from their time at EGS, when Gloucester was one of their customers. 'When we heard SMS was selling, we contacted them because we had high regard for the company' said John Sharood. He would not disclose the price paid to SMS, nor whether Gloucester came with any debt encumberment, but said the business was starting 'as a well capitalised company'. 'SMS treated the company very well preparing it for sale. SMS had a high regard for it', he added.
At present about half of Gloucester's business is done in the USA. Mousam intends to increase the global reach of the company to the approximately equal split between the USA, Europe and the Far East that is reflected by global plastics consumption. This will bring strong growth in Europe, but there is no chance that Gloucester will return to manufacturing in Britain. Design, research and service will be focused on existing sites in the USA, Austria and in Britain, but 'we don't need more than one manufacturing location'. Additional customer support centres will be based in China, Singapore and Italy. The company's major activities are in blown film and sheet, with the blown film equipment business slightly larger than sheet, and Mousam intends to focus on growing the sheet and foam businesses.
Gloucester Engineering has around 300 employees worldwide, and an annual turnover of around $100 million. John Sharood and Dick Murphy become chairman and vice chairman, and the chief executive of Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering, Carl Johnson, becomes president of the new company.
Bayer sells Hennecke October 30, 2007
The Hennecke polyurethane machinery subsidiary of the Bayer Group which was put up for sale in March this year is to be bought by Austrian/German private equity company Adcuram. Adcuram is the company which bought the Kautex blow moulding machinery business from SIG in 2004 and sold it in March this year. It also owns the Battenfeld injection moulding machinery business which it bought from SMS a year ago.
Bayer decided to sell Hennecke because polyurethane processing machinery did not fit in with its core activities, but says it aims to maintain a business relationship between Hennecke and its MaterialScience subsidiary, which is prominent in polyurethane materials.
The Hennecke Group has been building polyurethane processing machinery for more than 60 years, and operates mainly in the slab foam, refrigerator, sandwich panel and moulded building component sectors. It has production sites in St Augustin (Germany), Pittsburgh (USA), Singapore and Shanghai (China), where it employs approximately 500 people. Sales in 2006 were about Eur 80 million. No price has been put on the sale to Adcuram.
Rapid buys in France and builds in India October 30, 2007
Swedish granulator manufacturer Rapid is expanding with the purchase of Moditec of France and the start-up of manufacturing in India. It has also opened an office in Lebanon to serve the Middle East.
Moditec specialises in slow speed screen-less granulators and has been collaborating with Rapid for the past seven years in this field. Moditec will continue to operate under its own name, and some of its machines will be used to augment Rapid's existing slow speed series. One Moditec asset which will be incorporated in Rapid's machines is the patented Integrated Metal Detection system. With this any rogue metal in the scrap being ground completes a circuit between rotor and stator which immediately shuts down the machine. This is said to be a more cost effective way of dealing with tramp metal than the usual method of passing the scrap under a metal detector as it is fed in. Rapid is examining the possibility of incorporating IMD in its bigger machines, but at present the speed and momentum of the rotor are prohibitive.
The Indian manufacturing operation is through Rapid's distributor Prasad, which coincidentally was already building Moditec machines. Prasad is currently completing the first machine for evaluation by Rapid. When production starts the plan is to ship the main granulation engines from Sweden and for Prasad to build the rest of the granulators round them. Apart from reduced shipping costs, this will create domestic content in granulators sold in India and so will overcome import taxation.
The new Rapid Middle East office in Beirut has been set up by Elias Gergi El-Khawand, a former employee of the Rapid distributor in Egypt, ACIS. Rapid Middle East will deal directly with customers in Lebanon and Syria, while other North African and Middle Eastern territories will be handled by local agents.
Braskem researches bio-propylene as green polyethylene gathers momentum October 30, 2007
A bio-sourced polypropylene is under development at Braskem in Brazil as the company moves towards full scale production of polyethylene sourced from sugar cane. The schedule is to have 200,000 tonnes of polyethylene made from sugar cane ethanol on stream by the end of 2009. A pilot plant is currently running at its full capacity of 1 tonne/month and Braskem says the demand for development quantities is such that its customers are asking for the pilot plant to be streamlined.
The production of propylene from biomass is one of several longer term projects to produce plastics and fuels from locally-sourced sugar cane: Brazil is the largest producer of ethanol in the world with a current output of 18 billion litres/year, and production is expected to double over the next five years with the aid of new technologies to increase crop yield. Other research is into the production of butene and the replacement of MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) fuel additive - no longer accepted in the USA - with the less environmentally polluting ETBE (ethyl tertiary butyl ether).
Braskem says bio-sourced polyethylene is in demand from companies wishing to claim green credentials for their plastic packaging (it has a positive environmental effect in that every tonne of sugar cane grown to make polyethylene absorbs 2½ tonnes of CO2) and they are willing to pay a premium for it. The first grades to go into production will be high density for use in containers and films with high added value.
Braskem is a rapidly growing company with the aim of being in the world's top 10 petrochemical companies by 2012, and between now and then has investment plans for plants to make 1·3 million tonnes of polypropylene and a further 1·3 million tonnes of polyethylene and ethane.
SABIC IP invests in plastics technology for energy saving and gathering October 29, 2007
Investments in energy-saving applications are being made in Europe by SABIC Innovative Plastics with new lines to produce polycarbonate glazing sheets, and a new application development centre focused on the energy market.
The sheet extrusion investments in Austria, Italy and the Netherlands will increase production of single and multi-wall polycarbonate sheet for thermal, glazing and other applications such as roofing and signage. A new production line in Vienna, Austria, will make up to 2,100 mm wide Lexan Thermoclear sheet for lightweight, impact-resistant, transparent glazing of commercial greenhouses, verandas, industrial buildings and stadia; the additional line in Milan in Italy will produce Lexan Thermoclick sheet systems for translucent building facades, Lexan Thermoroof sheet for industrial rooflights, and Lexan Thermopanel sheet used to provide natural light in insulated metal roofing applications; and there will be an upgrade to the line at Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands producing Lexan solid sheet for use in building and construction and industrial applications, including signage, displays and security glazing. Completion of the expansion is scheduled for the third quarter of 2008.
The new Energy Center of Excellence being built at Bergen op Zoom is an extension of the site's Fluid Engineering Center of Excellence and part of the company's Global Application Technology organisation. Its aim is to steer the use of lightweight, high-performance thermoplastics such as polycarbonate and polyetherimide into replacement of heavy and increasingly costly copper, aluminium, steel and glass in thermal and photovoltaic solar panels. Challenges it sets out to overcome include climate and weathering performance, long-term hot water and overheating resistance, and optical efficiency.
Among the design, moulding and testing equipment available at the centre is a solar simulator to test the performance of complete solar thermal and photovoltaic collectors in different climatic conditions; tools to measure the long-term hydrolytic stability and creep rupture performance, and fluctuating pressure resistance of solar thermal collectors; and equipment for the extrusion of multi-wall sheet, twin-wall sheet vacuum forming and injection moulding up to 2,700 tonnes of clamping force including a new 1,600 tonnes rotating platen multi-component machine.
SABIC IP's materials are already being used in thermal energy collection: Solarnor of Norway is using Noryl EN150SP polyphenylene ether and Lexan polycarbonate to design what is said to be the first polymer solar thermal collector panel for domestic heating. The materials bring temperature resistance, hydrolytic stability, cost savings, and a dark, reflective surface.
British private equity company buys into Chinese PET bottle giant October 29, 2007
London-based private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has bought 29 per cent of China's largest PET bottle manufacturer in one of the biggest private equity investments ever made directly in China. This is the second foray made by CVC into this market sector this year: in March it failed to buy SIG Group of Switzerland.
CVC has paid around $225 million for the stake in Zhuhai Zhongfu Enterprise Company, which is China's leading supplier to Coca Cola and also makes bottles for Pepsi and Uni-President. Zhongfu is the largest PET bottle producer in Asia by volume. The company makes PET bottles for carbonated soft drinks, teas, juices and bottled water, as well as related packaging products. Sales in 2006 were around $300 million. Zhongfu is based in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province and employs 8,000 people in more than 60 subsidiaries across China.
The Zhongfu shares were sold by a group of shareholders who will retain approximately 5 per cent in the company.
China has the second largest beverage market in the world which is expected to grow annually at 11·6 per cent from 2006 to 2011.
Schads cut their expectations from Husky sale to give other shareholders more October 29, 2007
A special shareholders meeting on December 6 will decide whether to approve the sale of Husky to private equity company Onex. The Canadian manufacturer of injection moulding machines and hot runner systems was put up for sale in March this year and the board recommended an offer by Onex at the end of September.
Since the offer was made, valuing Husky at around Cdn$960 million (nearly Eur 680 million), founder and recent past-chairman Robert Schad and his wife have agreed to accept a reduced offer for the shares they control. They have agreed to accept Cdn$8·10 per share instead of the Cdn$8·18 that they and the company had originally agreed to accept from Onex. By taking less they are enabling other shareholders to receive more - Cdn$8·235 per share - while maintaining the overall price paid by Onex. This brings the price paid to the public shareholders closer to Robert Schad's original target price for the company.
New structure in Germany for Deceuninck October 29, 2007
Window frame producer Deceuninck of Belgium is to transfer some production from its German site in Bogen to Russia and Poland. The German subsidiary Inoutic/Deceuninck will in future focus on innovation and design in window and building profiles and concentrate its resources on German-speaking and South Eastern Europe. Its production volumes for Russia and Poland are to be transferred to Poznan in Poland, and Protvino in Russia.
Deceuninck says changed market conditions in Eastern Europe and Germany are behind the new approach, while there will be an additional benefit in the reduction in transport and customs costs.
Inoutic/Deceuninck will house two new business units: a non-windows business unit responsible for the sales in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Balkan countries of products from the Deceuninck Group's existing non-fenestration line, and an innovation and architecture business unit.
Partially bio-sourced polypropylene brings energy saving and printability benefits October 22, 2007
A partially bio-sourced polypropylene has been developed by US sustainable plastics specialist Cereplast. The new Biopropylene is part of a new family of Cereplast Hybrid Resins, or Biopolyolefins, in which half or more of the traditionally petroleum-sourced content is replaced by materials derived from sources such as starches from corn, tapioca, wheat and potatoes.
Cereplast says Biopropylene can replace traditional polypropylene 'in the vast majority of applications' and while it can be processed at the same cycle time as traditional plastics on conventional equipment, enables energy savings through needing 'significantly lower machine temperatures'. Biopropylene is available for injection moulding, thermoforming, profile extrusion, and extrusion blow moulding and meets the requirements for toxicity set by ASTM D 6400-04 specifications. Additional grades will become available replacing from 50 to 70 per cent of the traditional petroleum content.
Biopropylene is said to approximate the properties of traditional polypropylene in terms of heat deflection, modulus and impact strength, while its surface energy is higher than that of untreated polypropylene, leading to improved printability.
Castor oil-derived nylon reintroduced by BASF October 22, 2007
The quest for bio-sourcing of plastics has brought back a castor oil-sourced polyamide from BASF's old chemistry notebooks. BASF produced a nylon 6.10 about 50 years ago but the product was discontinued. Now, with growing interest in producing plastics from renewable resources, the company has reintroduced the material.
Ultramid Balance contains abou 60 per cent sebacic acid - derived from castor oil. It has a relatively low density for a polyamide, with good low temperature impact strength and good dimensional stability because of its low water absorption, and BASF says it is suitable for typical nylon 6 applications, and those where nylon 6 has shown limitations.
The Balance trade name is now being used for another castor oil-sourced polymer from BASF, Elastogran's Lupranol Balance 50 polyol.
There is, of course, already a commercially available polyamide made from castor oil - Arkema's Rilsan nylon 11. Arkema has now extended the technology into TPEs by producing a grade of its Pebax polyether block amide with the nylon block using the nylon 11 chemistry. The new grade is being sold as Pebax RNew.
Bayer adds bio-sourced polyols October 22, 2007
Alongside Dow, Elastogran and DuPont, Bayer MaterialScience has put bio-sourced polyols into production with up to 70 per cent by weight sourced from renewable raw materials. Applications to be shown at 2007 will be a polyurethane all-foam mattress, a moulded foam car seat part, a refrigerator with rigid foam insulation and a viscoelestic bathroom floor.
US biopolymer start-up buys PHA technology from Procter & Gamble October 22, 2007
A biopolymer company set up this year in the USA is planning to build four plants, the first starting construction next year, and to expand its product offering has bought the PHA technology developed over the past 10 years by Procter & Gamble.
Meredian Inc was formed after the successful start of the DaniMer Scientific business in 2004 and has introduced a modified PLA-based product line. More recently it started up Seluma Technologies, which has a proprietary line of polycondensation-based biopolymers. To this has now been added the polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) technology from Procter & Gamble.
Meredian expects to begin construction in 2008 on the first of four production facilities, to be located in the south eastern United States. Its intention is to produce around 270,000 tonnes of biopolymers annually.
Meredian polymers are being promoted both for their bio-sourcing and for their degradability. The company says its materials will biodegrade either aerobically or anaerobically. Degradation occurs in septic systems, commercial waste water treatment systems, composting environments or even cold ocean waters - environments where naturally occurring bacteria use the polymers as a food source and accelerate degradation. Applications are foreseen from flexible films and fibres to rigid packaging, including single-use food service and liquid packaging applications.
Bromine organisation responds to Greenpeace 'brominated compounds in the iPhone' criticism October 22, 2007
Greenpeace brought a sharp riposte from the Bromine Science and Environmental Forum (BSEF) with its attack on the Apple iPhone which it says 'contains toxic brominated compounds (indicating the prescence of brominated flame retardants (BFRs)) and hazardous PVC.' The environmental organisation says: 'An independent scientific laboratory tested 18 internal and external components of the iPhone and confirmed the presence of brominated compounds in half the samples, including in the phone's antenna, in which they made up 10 per cent of the total weight of the flexible circuit board. A mixture of toxic phthalates was found to make up 1·5 per cent of the plastic (PVC) coating of the headphone cables.'
There certainly are BFRs in the iPhone, says BSEF. They are 'commonly used in electronics to provide a high level of fire safety - in certain applications, they are the most effective products available.' BSEF adds 'The Greenpeace report does not say which BFRs are present in the iPhone because it does not know. As the report notes, the analytical equipment used for their report can only detect the presence of an element, such as bromine, but not specific chemicals. Therefore, the report speculates about what substances might be present, and raises an alarm without any basis for doing so.
'The brominated flame retardant most likely used in the iPhone' (BSEF appears not to know either) 'is actually a reactive - it reacts with other substances to form a plastic and, once reacted, it is also no longer available to the environment. Therefore, the Greenpeace report is incorrect in its assertions about the potential for releases to the environment.'
Greenpeace's criticism of the PVC content of the phone is that 'Two of the phthalate plasticisers found at high levels in the headphone cable are classified in Europe as "toxic to reproduction, category 2" because of their long-recognised ability to interfere with sexual development in mammals. While they are not prohibited in mobile phones, these phthalates are banned from use in all toys or childcare articles sold in Europe. Apple should eliminate the use of these chemicals from its products range.' It justifies its reference to a headphone cable in the context of a toy or childcare article with 'Although it is unclear whether headphones from an iPod or iPhone could ever be classified as components of toys or childcare articles, it is clear that the presence of high levels of phthalates in such materials could contribute to overall levels of exposure to such chemicals for the user, including children.'
Basell increasing output of polybutene-1 October 22, 2007
Basell is contemplating building a new polybutene-1 plant. It is planning to increase output from its plant at Moerdijk in the Netherlands next year by streamlining production to raise capacity from 45,000 to 67,000 tonnes, and says it is finalising a study 'of a further PB-1 production asset' with more details expected in the near future.
PB-1 combines flexibility and creep resistance for a wide range of applications, including easy-opening packaging, hot melt adhesives, polyolefin modification, sanitary pipe, and surface heating and cooling systems.
Pipelife moves up from sales to manufacture in Russia October 22, 2007
A new factory has been opened by Pipelife, the 50:50 Solvay/Wienerberger joint venture, to make plastic pipe systems in Russia. The plant, 130 km from Moscow, will produce pipes for water distribution, sewage networks and household products in polypropylene, polyethylene and PVC. Pipelife has been operating in the Russian market for more than 5 years through its sales office in Moscow.
The Pipelife Group is active in 29 countries and operates 30 factories with 2,800 employees, achieving sales of Eur 823 million in 2006.
PS and PP plants to close in Canada October 22, 2007
Ineos Nova and Basell are to close plastics plants in Canada. Ineos Nova is to close its 55,000 tonnes polystyrene plant in Montreal by the end of the year. The shut down will reduce the company's North American polystyrene capacity by around 6 per cent. The Montreal plant is described as 'high cost capacity', and the move will enable Ineos Nova to concentrate production at more efficient sites.
Basell will stop making polypropylene at Varennes in Quebec in April next year. Although the early slurry technology at the 30 years old plant was replaced in the late 1980s with a single Spheripol process plant, the site was no longer competitive. In June this year Basell announced plans to to stop making polypropylene at another Canadian plant, Sarnia in Ontario.
Now Billion goes all-electric October 22, 2007
Another name has joined the list of European companies building all-electric injection moulding machines. Billion of France has developed the Select as the next step in a progression from all-hydraulic, through hybrid with electric screw drive and electronic pump control.
The Select combines ball screw actuation for injection group movements and ejection with more robust planetary rollers for injection and clamping movements. At K2007 Billion will demonstrate a two-shot machine which has nine synchronous motors, controlling ejection, mould thickness and closing on the clamping group and dosing, injection and nozzle contact force ar the injection end.
There are two sizes initially, 75 and 150 tonnes.
Conair to build equipment through Indian joint venture October 22, 2007
Hard on the expansion of its extrusion downstream business through the purchase of Michigan Plastics Machinery Conair has expanded in Asia through a joint venture in India. It has formed a 50:50 partnership with Nu-Vu Engineers, a supplier of loaders, hot-air driers, granulators, chillers and mould-temperature controllers with manufacturing facilities, that will allow it to make and sell most of its plastics processing ancillary equipment in India. The new company, Nu-Vu Conair, extends Conair's long-standing sales operation in India.
Nu-Vu Conair will continue to make and sell existing Nu-Vu equipment and will begin making the US-designed Conair products this year. These include loaders and conveying systems, driers, feeders, and heat-transfer equipment. Granulators and blenders will be offered there in the near future.
The Indian joint venture is the second manufacturing operation Conair has started in Asia this year. To support customers in China, the company recently opened a plant in Shanghai, which it shares with its sister company Rapid Granulator. The Shanghai plant produces driers and materials-handling equipment for Conair, as well as Rapid granulators.
DSM EPDM investment goes ahead despite sale plan October 22, 2007
Despite its recent announcement that it is to sell its Keltan EPDM business DSM is going ahead with investment in its new catalysis technology to make Keltan ACE - Advanced Catalysis Elastomers. These were announced in March this year with the potential of improved oil resistance and better, cheaper, curing mechanisms, through the use of single-site catalysts giving greater control over polymer chain branching.
DSM is spending around Eur 10 million on a plant at its existing EPDM site at Geleen in the Netherlands which is due to be completed later than originally planned, in the fourth quarter of next year.
The confirmation that the investment in ACE is to continue despite Keltan being put up for sale came in an e-mail shot from Bob Hartmayer, president of DSM Elastomers, who will be transferring to DSM Pharmaceutical Products at the end of this year.
RPC buys Dutch moulder October 22, 2007
RPC Group has bought Dutch injection moulder Raytec, which makes glue sticks, adhesive dispensers, tape dispensers, cartridge guns and similar packs. Raytec had sales in its last full year of Eur 16 million and pre-tax profit of Eur 1·3 million. RPC paid Eur 4·35 million.
Raytec, based in Ravenstein, will trade as RPC Bramlage DHS (DIY, Household, Stationery).
Former Chronos business integrated with Zeppelin in Nottingham October 22, 2007
The Materials Processing Systems division of Chronos Richardson was bought by Zeppelin Silos & Systems of Germany earlier this year, and now Zeppelin has integrated it into a new Zeppelin Systems subsidiary based in Nottingham.
The former MPS business unit will be responsible for sales of Zeppelin's bulk solids handling systems and the former Chronos conveying, dosing and weighing and control equipment to plastic producers and processors in Britain, and will also serve UK-based engineering companies for engineering, procurement and construction contracts worldwide. Zeppelin also has subsidiaries in Italy, India, USA, Singapore, China and Russia and production plants in Germany, Belgium and Brazil. The Nottingham telephone number is 01623 753291.
Hytrel manufacture focused on Luxembourg October 22, 2007
A new compounding line opened by DuPont marks the first phase of a programme to integrate European production of Hytrel thermoplastic polyester elastomer in Luxembourg. The $9 million project aims to increase production efficiency, reduce environmental impact and improve customer service.
Hytrel was previously compounded at Mechelen in Belgium, needing 300 truck journeys annually over 200 km to transport the polymerised material from Luxembourg to Mechelen for final processing.
The new line has just gone on stream after proving trials since April. A second line is scheduled for installation in 2008.
Performance thermoplastic composites sheet capacity to be increased again October 22, 2007
An additional line to make Tepex thermoplastic fibre composites will be installed next year at its Brilon plant in Germany by Bond-Laminates. This will be the company's third line and will raise capacity to 2,000 tonnes a year. The company's first production line was commissioned in 2003, with a rated capacity of 400 tonnes and a second line with a capacity of 800 tonnes was commissioned in April this year. The new line will also be rated at 800 tonnes.
Tepex products are thermoformable sheets of materials such as TPU, various nylons including PA12 and PA46 and PPS laminated with carbon, glass or aramid fibres and are used in the sports, automotive, safety and aerospace industries as alternatives to aluminium, steel and injection-moulded materials.
Carbon fibre expansion and Chinese pre-preg plant planned by Hexcel October 22, 2007
New carbon fibre and carbon fibre precursor lines are to be added by Hexcel Corporation over the next two years, raising the company's capacity by 70 per cent to more than 7,000 tonnes. Hexcel is also planning to build a pre-preg plant in China.
The carbon fibre expansion is needed to meet expected demand in commercial aerospace, space and defence and 'strategic industrial applications' such as a recently announced contract for rotor tubes for the American Centrifuge Plant, and will cost around $180 million.
The Chinese pre-preg plant will supply the growing wind turbine industry in China with HexPly epoxy resin pre-pregs. China plans to double the amount of energy it obtains from renewable sources by 2020.
Senior appointment at Rhodia EP October 22, 2007
New vice president of Rhodia's Engineering Plastics business unit is François Hincker. He joins the company from Gates Corporation in Belgium.
Victrex expands and links with SABIC in new performance blend October 10, 2007
Capacity for PEEK polyaryletherketone has been increased by half at the Victrex plant at Thornton Cleveleys in Lancashire, and the company has introduced a new PEEK family in a deal with SABIC Innovative Plastics.
The opening of the £32 million expansion adds 1,450 tonnes of capacity, bringing the total up to 4,250 tonnes - when the company was bought out of ICI in 1993 capacity was 1,000 tonnes. The new plant is a stand-alone unit that can operate independent of the expanded original plant, but uses the same core technology.
The plant extension is the third major British investment by Victrex this year. In May, it opened a £5·3 million film extrusion plant to make Aptiv film and in July it opened a £1·5 million applied technology centre at Thornton Cleveleys.
The new Victrex MAX material is a blend of PEEK with SABIC's Extem UH thermoplastic polyimide, extending the mechanical and chemical performance of Victrex to higher temperatures. The performance range for Victrex MAX is 150 - 275 degC. At the end of 2005 Victrex linked with PBI Performance Products of the USA to develop compounds of Victrex PEEK and PBI's Celazole polybenzimidazole as Victrex T. This brought increased stiffness, wear resistance and hardness at elevated temperatures. More such deals are possible as Victrex seeks to stretch the mechanical and chemical performance of PEEK to even higher temperatures.
Two initial products in the MAX series combine the chemical resistance, hydrolitic stability, long-term heat and wear resistance of PEEK with the dimensional stability, high temperature strength and HDT/creep performance of Extem. They differ in the proportion of each polymer in the blend.
BASF consolidate US nylon 6 production October 10, 2007
What is described as the world's largest polymerisation plant for nylon 6 has been opened by BASF at its Freeport site in Texas, USA. The 120,000 tonnes line replaces a facility in Enka, North Carolina, and true to BASF's verbund integration strategy, is supplied with caprolactam by another facility at Freeport. Freeport is now the manufacturing base for BASF's entire polyamide intermediates and polymers business in North America.
Alongside the new nylon line, BASF has opened a 180,000 tonnes super-absorbent polymer line, replacing facilities in Aberdeen, Mississippi and Portsmouth, Virginia.
ExxonMobil steps up its presence in engineered polyolefin compounds October 10, 2007
A speciality business to supply high performance compounded polyolefin products - polypropylene, polyethylene, and elastomer base polymers - has been set up by ExxonMobil Chemical. The new compounds and composites business will aim to introduce products into new and existing applications, and already has a new line focused on automotive applications with products ranging from soft and flexible compounds to reinforced composites.
ExxonMobil recently started up a specialty compounding center in Baton Rouge, Lousiana, USA, to augment its European facility in Lillebonne, France. And in March it opened a Polymers Automotive Applications Center in Kawasaki, Japan.
New Qatar PP plant underlines leadership of Spheripol October 10, 2007
A 700,000 tonnes polypropylene plant to be built in Mesaieed, Qatar, for 2011 start-up as part of the Qatar Petrochemical Complex project will use Basell's Spheripol technology. The plant will take to more than 20 million tonnes the licensed capacity for the Spheripol process, which Basell says is the most widely used polypropylene technology in the world.
Solvay plans PVDF coatings plant for China October 10, 2007
Further investment in Chinese production of high performance polymers is being planned by Solvay Solexis. The company is building a PTFE micronised powder plant in Changshu for completion in the first quarter of 2008, and now is planning to build an integrated production plant for the manufacturing of polyvinylidene fluoride for coating applications and related monomers.
DSM keeps expanding Dyneema fibre capacity October 10, 2007
Production of Dyneema UD uni-directional bullet resistant sheet is to be expanded yet again by a quarter at DSM's site at Greenville in North Carolina, USA. The new investment is driven by the increasing demand in the US market for personal and especially vehicle security and protection against terrorism. A year ago DSM announced a $multi-million expansion by 25 per cent with the addition of a fifth line, scheduled to start up in early 2008. Now it is to add a further 25 per cent capacity expected to come on stream in mid-2008.
DSM to raise caprolactam capacity October 7, 2007
DSM is to expand and modernise its caprolactam plant at the Chemelot Industrial Park at Geleen in the Netherlands. The Eur 25 million investment will allow DSM to gradually expand the capacity of the plant according to market demands.
DSM says its Fibre Intermediates subsidiary is the leading global supplier of caprolactam, the key raw material for nylon 6. It has three operating companies with a combined annual capacity of more than 0·5 million tons in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.
Change of financial control at Milacron October 7, 2007
A controlling interest in Milacron has been sold by Glencore Finance of Switzerland, which injected $100 million in 2004 to head off Milacron's potential bankruptcy, to an affiliate of Bayside Capital, a Miami-based investment group. The shareholding represents around 29 per cent of the stock, but the nature of the shares sold gives Bayside a majority of directors on the board. It is understood that Glencore lost money on the sale, but had to sell after three years for internal reasons.
Death of Terry Woolley October 7, 2007
Terry Woolley, the man responsible for building the Negri Bossi injection moulding machine business in Britain through the 1980s and '90s, died suddenly at his holiday home in Spain on September 26. Mr Woolley began his career in the injection moulding industry in the buying department of Bone Cravens, then switched to sales and his association with Negri Bossi began in 1979. He retired in 1996.
Teijin buys half of NatureWorks October 2, 2007
Cargill of the USA is selling a 50 per cent stake in its NatureWorks polylactic acid biopolymer business to Teijin of Japan. The stated aim is to expand sales both in existing markets for PLA, and through Teijin's experience in fibres, films and compounds to develop new applications.
The announcement from Cargill says that 'the move comes as NatureWorks expands to the nameplate capacity of its US polylactic acid (PLA) plant' - the 140,000 tonnes plant at Blair in Nebraska. The plant has struggled to reach its full potential, to the extent that packaging companies developing PLA products less than a year ago said they were either holding back or holding polyester alternatives in reserve against PLA supply problems.
Cargill vice chairman Guillaume Bastiaens hinted at capacity expansion, possibly outside the USA, when he commented: 'Teijin's downstream application knowledge in fibres, films and plastic compounds will be of immeasurable value as we grow production at our Blair, Nebraska facility and consider additional expansion in the fast-growing global marketplace.'
Teijin is no stranger to the biopolymers business, or to working with PLA. In March last year it announced a co-operation with Musashino Chemical Laboratory to develop a high performance bioplastic with a melting point of 210 degC - 40 degC higher than PLA - putting it in the same league as PBT. Source materials were L-lactate - used in polylactide - and its enantiomer D-lactate, whose crystalline structure enables the high heat performance. The aim was to achieve production of several hundred tons by the end of 2008 while working on the mass production process for the material. The technology led to the Biofront fibre which is being used
by the Mazda car company for all the seating fabric in its new Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid car about to be introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show.
KB Plastics of Erdington in Birmingham, which was bought by the Epwin Group in July this year, is anticipating imminent expansion with new machinery following the growth of a PVC rainwater fitting contract. The contract - with an undisclosed company in rainwater and roofline systems - started in 2003 and has risen to more than £1 million per year.
KB Plastics operated as KB Plastics Mouldings before it was bought by the Epwin Group, Britain's second largest extruder of PVC profiles for the building market.
Azelis buys into India October 2, 2007
The Azelis polymer and chemical distribution group, with subsidiaries in 22 countries in Europe, has stepped up its Asian presence. The company already has an office in Shanghai, China, but has now taken equity in an Indian distribution company, buying 49 per cent of Marigold International of Mumbai.
Marigold is part of the Arvind Mafatal Group, a large Indian corporation with interests in speciality chemicals, rubber chemicals and textiles. It has sales of Eur 22 million in the polymers and chemicals sectors, but Azelis plans to expand its reach into other key sectors including coatings, food and personal care. Azelis also intends to take over the complete shareholding in Marigold .
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