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Two more all-electric injection machines hit the British market May 28, 1999
Two more all-electric injection moulding machines are to go on sale in Britain, one from Japan and the other from Italy.
The Japanese machine is the JSW J-ELII series for which Dassett Process Engineering has become UK distributor. There are six machines in the range - current literature lists five models at 35, 55, 85, 110 and 180 tonnes, and the company has just launched a 300 tonne model. In addition there is a 35 tonne machine optimised for optical disc moulding.
JSW emphasises the use of servo drives for increased torque and speed, and can supply 300 mm/sec injection speed and 94 cm3/sec injection rate on a 20 mm screw to 400 cm3/sec from a 46 mm screw.
Drive is translated into strokes using ball screw mechanisms and converted to clamp movement through a double toggle. All the machines have an injection-compression function as standard with up to six movement steps.
The Syscom 1000 controller is a self-learning system which can optimise set-up from basic part data such as wall thickness and material.
Dassett will be showing a 110 tonne model at Interplas. Its agency agreement covers only JSW's electric machines - the hydraulic machines are not generally on sale in the UK, but can be supplied if required.
The new electric machine from Italy is the Bodini Eledrive 120, which was introduced at last year's K exhibition. It becomes available as part of a package of Italian machinery now sold in the UK by Italmachinery, which was set up towards the end of last year.
Bodini itself is a young company. It was started in 1994 by Gianni Bodini, who for the previous 45 years designed machines for Negri Bossi. The Eledrive is described as the first fully electric machine made in Italy, and the company is now in the process of extending the range beyond the initial 120 tonne model. Italmachinery also plans to show an electric machine at Interplas.
£multi-million Malaysian film line order for BCI May 28, 1999
Black Clawson International of Newport, South Wales, is to install a £multi-million co-extrusion cast film line in Malaysia. The line, for Scientex Packaging Film, follows another installation at the company in 1996 and further increases Black Clawson's penetration into Asia which includes four stretch cast film lines in Malaysia.
The Scientex order is a turnkey project capable of handling metallocene materials. The line will be in excess of 3 m wide and will run at speeds greater than 400 m/min. Included in the line will be a two-spindle single-turret winder with a single lay-on roll assembly, which can exchange rolls in 1·5 seconds using high speed indexing and static adhesiveless automatic transfer.
LIG plans healthcare merger May 28, 1999
Condoms and latex products manufacturer London International Group is planning to merge with footwear and medical device manufacturer Seton Scholl - itself only a year old, following the merger of Seton and Scholl. The merger will create SSL International, which will be one of Britain's top 150 public companies with combined sales of around £642 million.
Among the benefits anticipated from the merger is the strategic one of the major outlets used by both companies -- their products are largely distributed through pharmacies, mass market outlets and healthcare professionals. The new group will have brands such as Durex condoms, Scholl footcare and footwear, Regent medical gloves, Marigold household gloves, Tubigrip compression bandages and ProSport sports supports.
Colombian PP output set to double May 28, 1999
Colombia's only polypropylene manufacturing company, Polipropileno del Caribe, is to build a second 140,000 tonnes plant using Targor's Novolen gas phase process to make homopolymers and random copolymers. The company's existing 140,000 tonnes plant uses Unipol technology and makes homopolymers, random copolymers and impact copolymers.
The new plant already has two planned extensions, to 180,000 tonnes and then, with an additional reactor, to 225,000 tonnes.
Change in magnetic polymers company May 28, 1999
Russell Magnetic Polymers has become PPTC Ltd with the sale by one of its founders of its stake in the business.
Russell was set up in 1997 by IDA Ltd and Alexander Russell plc to make heavily filled -- up to 95 per cent by weight -- polymers on a custom manufacturing basis and as a product development adviser. The main use of the materials is in magnetic components.
Now venture capital group Warba has acquired Russell's interest and the company has been renamed Polymer Powders Technology Compounding, or PPTC.
PPTC is also a participant in a pan-European EC-funded project to develop products for electromagnetic interference suppression. Other development strands include high temperature and joint sealing applications.
Joint effort to promote light-emitting polymers May 25, 1999
Two companies researching light-emitting polymers for electronic displays have joined forces to encourage third party developers. Cambridge Display Technology and Covion have set up The Polymer Display Alliance (PODIA), which intends to make available all the necessary technology from polymer materials, device architecture and process know-how to device prototyping to companies wishing to evaluate LEP display technology. CDT has been working commercially since 1996 on harnessing the ability of some polymers to emit light when electrically stimulated. The aim is to produce matrices which will act like liquid crystal displays in applications from simple displays to computer screens, without the drawbacks of LCDs, but using basic LCD display production technology.
Covion Organic Semiconductors was set up last month out of a division of Aventis Research & Technologies - itself part of Hoechst - to commercialise the work on LEPs which has been in progress at Aventis for the past six years. Setting up Covion as an independent company has enabled Zeneca to invest in Covion on a progressive basis with the ultimate intention of acquiring the company.
Both CDT and Covion are working with major electronics companies - they both, for instance, have been co-operating with Phillips and Uniax. By setting up PODIA they aim to produce a single point of contact for sourcing LEP technology to accelerate its commercialisation.
Ashland has raised the price of its composites resins. The Composite Polymers Division of Ashland Specialty Chemical Company has added up to 5 cents per pound to the price of its specialty (corrosion-resistant, fire-retardant, pultrusion and automotive), general purpose and isophthalic resins.
Dow ups epoxy output May 25, 1999
Expansion in epoxy resin output is scheduled by Dow Chemical for the end of this year. The company is increasing its Freeport, Texas, USA plant capacity by 45,000 tonnes of epoxy and 125,000 tonnes of epichlorohydrin, a constituent of epoxy resins and other chemicals.
Wellington not out of the woods yet May 18, 1999
The restructuring programme at Wellington Holdings last year brought an 11 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £3·1 million, but this was after operating profits had been cut by 15 per cent to £5·6 million.
During the year the group sold its L & H converting business to concentrate on compounding and seals manufacture. It bought CDI Seals in the USA, which shifted the emphasis in the business to bring seals up to 50 per cent, from 30 per cent five years ago, and reduced dependance on the UK from 74 per cent of sales in 1994 to 54 per cent.
The seals division saw sales up 1 per cent but profits down 15 per cent, partly as the result of the strength of Sterling and partly because of poor trading in deep mining and oil exploration. Dynamic Seals of the USA, however, bucked the trend with a record year of sales and profits.
In compounding the strength of Sterling, poor trading in the retread tyre business and short time working in the new car market helped to depress sales by 16 per cent and operating profit by 14 per cent.
Materials handling companies combine May 18, 1999
The Clyde Bowers Group is centralising its materials handling activities in a new company based in Doncaster. It is merging Clyde Materials Handling and Clyde Richard Simon to form Clyde Materials Handling. This will bring under one roof the brands of Macawber, Vac-U-Max, Sturtevant, Richard Simon and Clyde Pneumatic Conveying.
DSM consolidates German stock shapes business May 18, 1999
DSM has sold off part of its Engineering Plastics Products group in Germany. The Polypenco Kunststofftechnik company in Bergisch Gladbach has been split and sold to two companies.
The machined parts and sales of stock shapes activities have been sold to Polytron Kunststofftechnik, part of Henderkrott. The company also operates in Bergisch Gladbach. The seals and automotive parts activities have been sold to Gapi Technische Produkte of Bad Kreuznach.
DSM says the sale is in keeping with its objective of concentrating on its core Engineering Plastics Products activity of the production and sale of stock shapes and end products in specific markets, and in Germany, concentrating that activity at DSM EPP Deutschland in Sinsheim.
Dow claims processing advances for new HIPS May 18, 1999
New technology for the production of high impact polystyrene has resulted in a new product line for Dow Plastics. The company has completed trials of Styron A-Tech and it will become available on the European market in June.
Dow says that it has been able to combine properties such as toughness, gloss, stiffness and flow in ways not previously possible, eliminating previous needs to trade one property off against another.
The first grade on the market, Styron A-Tech 1120, is a high gloss medium impact material intended for injection moulding and cap layer extrusion. It is described as having a high flow and broad processing window, and to be less sensitive than other HIPS materials to variations in melt temperature, mould temperature, holding pressure and injection speed. The level of gloss can be optimised by controlling melt and mould temperatures.
In the UK Styron is sold by Ashland Plastics and Resin Express.
There was further confirmation of Schmalbach-Lubeca's strategy of investment in the PET container business in the group's results for 1998. Sales were slightly lower than in the previous year at DM 4·128 billion, but this was due mainly to the disposal of the company's metal packaging division. When last year's structure changes are taken into account - including the newly acquired Brazilian PET operation and the Czech beverage can plant - the company showed a slight increase in sales.
The PET container business is the biggest single sector, accounting for 43 per cent of sales, followed by beverage cans (38 per cent) and White Cap with 19 per cent.
Group profit increased from DM 251 million to DM 283 million, representing a rise in percentage of sales from 5·8 to 6·9.
Schmalbach has been spending heavily on new plant. Last year it invested DM 564 million, of which DM 120 million went on the purchase of Braspet and the Czech beverage can plant at Ejpovije. The remaining DM 444 million was spent on new plant and equipment, representing a 42 per cent rise in investment over the previous year.
Despite a worse-than-previous traditionally weak start to the year, Schmalbach-Lubeca is predicting a slightly higher level of sales for 1999, accompanied by higher profits.
Great Lakes buys FMC additives May 11, 1999
Great Lakes Chemical Corporation is buying FMC Corporation's Process Additives Division, which has a plant in Trafford Park, Manchester, as well as one in Nitro, West Virginia, USA. The price is $159 million in cash. The Process Additives Division turned over $160 million in 1998.
The purchase will broaden Great Lakes' range of polymer additives, and one effect will be that Great Lakes will be able to offer both halogen and non-halogen flame retardants.
Carclo expands into the USA May 11, 1999
Carclo Engineering Group has bought a group of American injection moulding companies, bringing engineering plastics up to more than half its group operation. Carclo has bought the Carrera Corporation which has five manufacturing operations with businesses which fit very closely with Carclo's existing interests.
The principal products made by Carrera are close tolerance connectors and single use medical components. A plant for connectors for fibre optic communications is located close to a major US customer of Carclo subsidiary CTP Coil, and Carrera's medical components are compatible with, but do not overlap, the interests of CTP Plasro. Carrera is to be renamed CTP Carrera Inc.
Ten Cate Plasticum expands May 11, 1999
Ten Cate Plasticum, the aerosol closure and caps subsidiary of the Dutch Royal Ten Cate group, has bought a German packaging company and opened a US plant. The takeover of Ilkenhans has been backdated to January 1. The new US plant, for aerosol caps, is sited near Chicago and will trade as Ten Cate Plasticum USA.
Ten Cate Plasticum also has a UK subsidiary, in Alfreton, Derbyshire.
DSM and AlliedSignal settle UHMWPE fibre patent dispute May 11, 1999
DSM and AlliedSignal have broken the log jam they created over high molecular weight polyethylene fibres. The two companies have been in dispute over patents for more than two years, during which time both companies were restricted in their worldwide fibre sales. Now they have agreed to settle their dispute, and divert the money from legal fees into developing the market for ultra strong fibres.
PTS adds polycarbonate - at last May 8, 1999
Plastic Technology Service has become UK distributor for the Panlite polycarbonate compounds from Teijin Chemicals of Japan, with the exception of optical disc grades with which Teijin already has a significant UK presence.
The agreement brings to an end a wide search by PTS to plug this gap in its engineering thermoplastic product range, which includes nylons, polyesters, acetals, PPS and LCP, and gives Teijin extra sales potential for the 60,000 tonnes of additional capacity it is planning for later this year when it opens its first plant outside Japan, in Singapore.
DSM profits fall May 8, 1999
DSM is the latest polymer producer to announce a substantial fall in profits at the beginning of this year. After Borealis and BASF, DSM has published a fall in net profits in the first quarter over the same period in 1998 of 41 per cent (EUR 82 million from EUR 139 million).
This 41 per cent profits fall on sales down 15 per cent masks a more dramatic decline in DSM's Polymers and Industrial Chemicals business where profits fell 75 per cent, although the Performance Materials division increased profits by 18 per cent on slightly lower sales.
Gas phase production developed for Shell's Carilon May 8, 1999
Shell Chemicals has adapted the Montell gas phase polyolefin production process to the manufacture of its Carilon aliphatic polyketone. Gas phase technology is said to yield a simpler and more robust process that results in improved control and lower costs. It allows for one-step continuous manufacturing rather than batch processing.
Montell Polyolefins has built a pilot plant for polyketones at its Ferrara, Italy, site and is confident that it can design a commercial size plant.
Shell Chemicals began commercial production of aliphatic polyketones with the start-up of the Carilon Polymers plant at Carrington in 1996. An additional plant is currently under construction at Geismar in the USA, which is scheduled to begin production later this year. The initial capacity of 25,000 tonnes will be expandable to 50,000 tonnes. Gas phase production would meet needs for further capacity expansion beyond the Geismar plant.
DuPont invests heavily in new fluoropolymer technology May 6, 1999
DuPont is investigating new fluoropolymer technology which will be more efficient to operate and could yield new forms of fluoropolymer. The company started up a $2 million pilot facility at its Wilmington, USA, headquarters earlier this year, and is planning to build a $40 million development and manufacturing plant at its Fayetteville site in the USA which will have an initial capacity of around 1,250 tonnes from next year.
If all goes well, DuPont will start building a world scale fluoropolymer and fluoromonomer plant which will cost $275 million over the next seven years.
Additional capacity at Zynergy May 6, 1999
Zynergy Manufacturing Europe - formerly Byron Mediplastics - is expanding its production capacity with the purchase of a 110 tonne Krauss-Maffei C range injection machine. It is to be used for new high volume medical device projects using multi-cavity tooling.
Biodegradable film joint venture May 6, 1999
Commercial production of a new polyvinyl alcohol film is to start in Britain with the setting up of a joint venture company, Depart Film Products (UK), by PVOH developer Environmental Polymers Group and Arrow Flexible Packaging.
PVOH has been 'rediscovered' as a thermoplastic with potential for environmentally acceptable disposable products because of its biodegradable and compostable nature. Heat degradation problems which prevented its use in earlier years have been overcome and there are now several products on the market.
Idroplast of Italy makes water soluble film, and closer to home, PVAX Polymers has been working in Ireland to commercialise PVOH as a biodegradable moulding material.
Environmental Polymers was set up in 1989 and applied for a patent to produce biodegradable PVOH products in 1992. In 1994 the company had got as far as small scale manufacture of PVOH films, and with the assistance of the British Technology Group the patents were enhanced and the company eventually went public in March 1998, starting a major R & D programme four months later.
EPG's patents cover formulation of a PVOH compound and the extrusion process by which it is converted to mouldable pellets. EPG says that prior to this the only way to produce high performance films was with a solution casting process which was comparatively more expensive. The EPG process is also said to yield better multidimensional strength characteristics than the solution process. Coextrusion is also possible, enabling films to be produced that combine layers of PVOH with different water solubility.
Film produced by this route is said to have high tensile and tear strength characteristics. By using partially or fully hydrolised PVOH grades films can be produced that are transparent, flexible, and have high puncture resistance. PVOH may also be pigmented, can be printed, and has high gas barrier properties. It is also resistant to non-polar oils and chemicals.
Initially the new Depart Film Products company will make laundry bags for medical use - bags containing soiled clothes can be put straight into the washing machine without unpacking, protecting the operators. Eventually the product range will be extended to include dog tidy bags, carrier bags, sacks, compost bags and bin liners.
Trendpam slims down May 5, 1999
Trendpam, which is UK agent for a range of capital and ancillary equipment, has been restructured. Trendpam Engineering, which supplies equipment for PVC mixing, blending and bulk powder conveying systems, has been closed. The reason given is that because of the low current price of PVC and the over-subscribed market for PVC profile, the ancillary equipment business has become too competitive and the profit negligible.
Trendpam Engineering was also the agent for GWK water temperature control systems, and GWK is setting up its own UK subsidiary.
The other arm of the company is Trendpam Machinery, which represents, principally, Nissei injection moulding machines and Aoki blow moulding machines. This company remains active, and business prospects are described as 'excellent'.
Zenith splits to set up Sumitomo agency May 5, 1999
The former Fahr Bucher sales and service company in the UK has gone through another metamorphosis. Two years ago, when Fahr Bucher ceased building moulding machines and sold its technology and support operations to Krauss Maffei, Fahr Bucher UK became Zenith European, continuing support for Fahr Bucher machines in this country.
Now it has split up, with two of its directors, Andrew Sargisson and Jeff Nowill, setting up a new company to sell Sumitomo electric injection moulding machines, and the third director Maurice Beamand planning to take Zenith European to new premises in Daventry to continue Fahr Bucher support.
The agency for Remu, set up last year, has also been discontinued.
The new company has been named Electron Tech, and as well as gaining the UK and Ireland distributorship for Sumitomo machines, has been appointed non-exclusive agent in the UK and Ireland for Yushin robots.
The Sumitomo electric machines are known as the SE-S series and range from 30 to 350 tonnes, with smaller and larger additions to the range planned for introduction this year. Sumitomo had previously been precluded from selling machines in Europe because of a technical co-operation agreement with Netstal. This was terminated when Mannesmann bought Netstal, and Sumitomo has now set up distributorships in the UK, Holland and France, and has opened a technical centre in Amsterdam. Sumitomo builds around 50 electric machines a month, with a substantial market in CD, mini-disc and DVD manufacture.
The Yushin robot robot range includes three- and five-axis cartesian robots and a two-axis side entry model having a take-out time of 0·32 seconds. Yushin has also co-operated with Sumitomo in the production of a robot for CD removal, which has a continuous path movement (as opposed to a reciprocating in-out movement) which can remove a CD in 73 milliseconds.
Borealis profits slashed on record sales May 5, 1999
Despite record sales volumes and tightening control of its costs, the low market prices for polyolefins at the beginning of the year forced down Borealis' profits in the first quarter. However, the company - Europe's largest and the world's fourth largest polyolefin producer - expects prices to rise in the second quarter, reflecting increasing feedstock costs.
First quarter turnover was up on the first quarter last year (Eur 613 million compared with Eur 600 million) but operating profit fell from Eur 78 million to Eur 20 million. Borealis says its return on capital employed was 21 per cent in the first quarter of 1998, but it only scraped 4 per cent this year.
Sidel claims most cost-effective method of making PET bottles oxygen-proof May 3, 1999
Oxygen barrier properties 30 times those of untreated single layer PET bottles and a carbon dioxide barrier seven times greater are claimed for the ACTIS - Amorphous Carbon Treatment on Internal Surface - process developed by French PET bottle machine specialist Sidel.
The process consists of coating the inside of an otherwise conventional single layer bottle with a layer of highly hydrogenated amorphous carbon about 0·1 micron thick. The layer is created from a gas plasma generated in a machine running downstream of the bottle blowing process. The process has been patented by Sidel, and in its initial phase is capable of treating 10,000 bottles an hour up to 0·6 litres.
The food contact aspect of the coating has been tested and approved by TNO in Holland. As well as being safe for food products, Sidel says the treated bottle is totally recyclable (uncertainties have been expressed by commentators over the effect on the recyclability of PET bottles of adding barrier coatings or layers to bring PET into markets such as beer packaging).
Sidel says that the ACTIS process costs less to apply on 33 and 50 cl bottles than competing barrier processes. Tasting tests carried out by Jørgensen in Denmark and Qualtech-IFBM in France are said to have shown that beer packaged in ACTIS-treated PET and beer in glass bottles were seen as equal.
Montell and Elenac to combine LPGPE technologies May 3, 1999
Shell is injecting the low pressure gas phase polyethylene technology of its Montell subsidiary into its Elenac joint venture with BASF. In practice Montell - originally a joint venture between Shell and Montedison but now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group - will set up a 50:50 joint venture with Elenac which will further develop and sell the technologies of both companies. Montell will contribute its 'swing' LLDPE-HDPE Spherilene process while Elenac will put in its LupoTech G process. Both companies will also put their Ziegler-Natta, chromium and metallocene catalyst technologies into the pot.
Existing licensees for low pressure gas phase polyethylene plants using technologies from either company will in future be supported by the new joint venture.
Other technologies outside the LPGPE area will not be a part of this new structure.
TI invests at Dowty Seals May 3, 1999
The TI Group has centralised the rubber compound requirements of all its Forsheda UK factories with a £2·75 million investment in a mixing facility at its Dowty Seals Division in Ashchurch, Gloucestershire.
The plant is based on two Francis Shaw internal mixers of 20 and 150 litre capacity, giving the company flexibility to produce batches of 15 - 30 kg or 110 - 200 kg. Compound is produced in shrink-wrapped coils for direct extruder or injection feeding, or in slabs for pre-forming.
Plant control is by a T A Shore computer system which collates weights, ingredient lot numbers, mixing cycles and dump mill conditions. Physical properties for each batch are gathered and statistically analysed using Eclipse software. All ingredients, internal transport packaging and finished compounds are bar-coded for traceability back to the supplier's quality system.
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