Hydraulics hold up Bosch/Rexroth deal

August 31, 2000 - The proposed takeover of Rexroth by Bosch is continuing to trouble the European Commission. Giving conditional go-ahead for Siemens to acquire the Dematic, VDO and Sachs divisions of Mannesmann (the Commission wants the postal automation section of Dematic to be sold), the EC declared 'serious reservations' over the Bosch/Rexroth deal because of the prominent position held by both companies in industrial hydraulics.
     In particular, the EC drew attention to the competition between Rexroth's axial-piston pumps and Bosch's radial-piston pumps. 'After listening to other players in the market it was decided that it was not enough for Bosch to promise to sell', says a Commission statement. The EC is to undertake a more detailed examination which could take up to four months.

Bayer buying US powder coatings company

August 31, 2000 - Bayer's American subsidiary Bayer Corporation is buying polymer and specialty chemical producer Sybron Chemicals as a precursor to its entry into the powder coating raw materials market. The acquisition will give Bayer's Coatings and Colorants Business Group (Polymers segment) and Specialty Products Business Group (Chemicals segment) access to new technologies and products and will enable them to expand their market positions in the NAFTA region.
     Sybron has expertise and a good market position in the NAFTA region for powder coating raw materials and functional polyesters outside the powder coatings field. Both these activities complement Bayer's polyurethane hardeners business. Sybron's North American polymer intermediates business will be combined with the worldwide distribution structure of Bayer's Coatings and Colorants Business Group. The acquisition will also add high performance resins and flame retardants to Bayer's portfolio.

Demag to build injection machines in Indian joint venture

August 30, 2000 - Demag Ergotech is planning a joint venture with Larsen & Toubro in India to built injection moulding machines for the domestic market and for export. Initially the company will build small and medium-size toggle clamping machines, with a target of 600 machines to be built in 2005. Half of these will be for local sale, and the others for export to Australia, North and South Africa and the Arab countries.
     Larsen & Toubro is a major Indian industrial group with annual sales of around Eur 2 billion. Its subsidiary LTM Ltd is already a Demag licensee building injection moulding machines of the D-Series - now no longer in production in Germany. In the year to the end of March LTM built 120 machines.

Investment in steering coupling production

August 30, 2000 - Northern Rubber has installed a second production cell to make flexible automotive steering couplings at a cost in excess of £300,000. The couplings insulate the steering column from noise and vibration, and incorporate a series of complex textile inserts to meet torsional and axial stiffness requirements. The manufacturing cell incorporates a specially built coil winding machine and purpose-built moulding presses.

3D decoration process can be ordered and specified on-line

August 29, 2000 - A three-dimensional imaging process for decorating mouldings has been introduced and patents applied for by the Tanfield Group through a subsidiary trading in Europe and the USA as e-comeleon. And as the company's name suggests, the internet figures heavily in both the sales and the operation of the process.
     e-comeleon is not saying how the 'specially formatted coating' is actually delivered to the moulding, but emphasises that this is an imaging rather than a printing process - suggesting some form of laser or ink jet technology rather than direct contact from a printing plate. Images can be applied in register at resolutions of 360, 720 or 1,440 dpi from two-dimensional artwork - the process applies image distortion to compensate for the three dimensional surface, rather like a 3D modelling program.
     The process can be used on a wide range of substrates in addition to plastics, such as metals, ceramics, glass, leather, fabric and wood, and can also be applied to maintain a textured or matt surface. The company has focused its initial promotion on plastics, partly because plastics are technically more difficult than some other substrates - polyolefins, for example, are not ideally suited for decorating this way - and partly because of the nature of the markets in which it sees potential. These are essentially consumer/business electronics, with components such as mobile phones, portable computers, personal digital assitants, computer mice and other products with a perceived quality which can benefit from personalisation.

Porous aluminium can be machined like wood

August 29, 2000 - An aluminium tooling material which is vacuum permeable and can be machined like wood for use in thermoforming tools has been introduced by Umak. Metapor, dubbed 'fizzy metal', is made in three grades for standard, high density and high (210 degC) temperature applications. Average pore size varies between 12 and 15 microns and density between 1·8 and 1·9 according to grade.

Price increase for carbon blacks

August 29, 2000 - Degussa-Hüls is increasing the price of its carbon blacks in Europe on October 1. Furnace blacks go up 6 per cent and gas and lamp blacks by 4 per cent.

Milacron sues UBE over computer control

August 25, 2000 - Milacron has taken up cudgels against a second injection moulding machine competitor over an alleged patent infringement. It has filed suit against UBE Machinery, charging patent infringement relating to technology that integrates personal computers and plastics machinery control systems. Earlier this year Milacron successfully took similar action against Husky.
August 29, 2000 - UBE is defending its position with the claim that its machines use its own control system, they differ from the patent under which Milacron has filed suit, and that they were available in the USA before Milacron filed its patent.

Rubber processor expands and opens TPE unit

August 25, 2000 - Rubber extruder and moulder Dale Polymers has opened a 5,000 sq ft extension to its Accrington factory as part of a continuing investment programme planned to double its turnover over four years. With the expansion has come a move into TPE extrusion intended to widen the company's potential customer base.
     The 90 mm TPE line has been installed in the new unit, alongside a new 6 in rubber extruder and the company's two existing rubber lines. The space freed by putting all the extrusion lines under one roof will be used to expand the PU casting facilities, and to house new presses which are on order.

Partial green light for Mannesmann sale

August 24, 2000 - The acquisition of Mannesmann Demag Krauss Maffei by Siemens and Bosch has been given the go-ahead by the European Commission as, apart from some benefit in the steam turbine market, it will not create or strengthen a dominant position in the markets - plastics machinery being one - in which the companies operate. Mannesmann will retain shares in Demag Krauss Maffei through the holding company Atecs, but will no longer have any say in the running of the company.
     The Commission has still to give its verdict on the sale of other non-telecommunications parts of Mannesmann-Vodafone to Bosch and Siemens, including the acquisition by Bosch of control and hydraulics systems competitor Rexroth.

Beer bottle role sought for modified styrene

August 24, 2000 - A styrene-based material, developed to have the same breaking characteristics as glass but without the safety implications, is now being proposed as a potential material for beer bottles. AronX was devised by Safeglass (Europe) for break glass applications, such as fire alarms, and has been in production in finished product form for around three years. Now customer demand has led the company to make the material available for third party processing.
     One product area which Safeglass is researching is packaging, and in particular beer bottles, for which it sees AronX producing lightweight and safer glass-like bottles which would be acceptable to the beer drinking public - the assumption is that PET is aesthetically unacceptable. The company appears not yet to have established the barrier properties of AronX or suitability for pasteurisation and hot fill.
     There are three grades of the material, described as a 'modified styrenic resin', and classified by its breaking strength according to ISO527, which ranges from 18 to 27 MPa. Flexural modulus (ISO178) is 3,100 MPa across the range. Distortion temperature under load (ISO75) is 78 - 79 degC. Contact.

Coextrusion system for TPV and EPDM

August 24, 2000 - Advanced Elastomer Systems and Paul Troester Machinenfabrik have jointly developed a co-extrusion process combining Santoprene thermoplastic vulcanisate and EPDM. Applications are seen in automotive and building profiles and weatherseals.
     At the heart of the system is a specially developed die head fed by a 60 mm extruder for the Santoprene and a 90 mm vacuum machine for the EPDM. The combined extrudate is passed through a standard vulcanisation unit, during which the TPV is said to keep perfect dimensional stability.
     As well as conventional solid profiles, the system can be combined with the water foaming process for Santoprene, and the Santoprene can also be coloured. Contacts Advanced Elastomer Systems, Paul Troester.

European co-ordination for R & D

August 24, 2000 - A network of European plastics research organisations has been set up with the National Physical Laboratory as its British representative. The role of the new Eu-Roplas is to provide pan-European channels of communication, to co-ordinate research bids to the European Union, and to provide research support to companies, particularly small to medium enterprises. In this latter context the NPL will become the channel through which plastics organisations in the UK can raise technical problems for research and development in Europe.

On-line purchasing for add-on injection units

August 24, 2000 - You can now order a two-component conversion kit for an injection moulding machine directly on the internet. Windsor Kunststofftechnologie, the former Klöckner Windsor company based in Germany which is now part of the Cannon Group, has switched from building complete injection moulding machines to making add-on injection units to convert machines of any make to multi-component moulding. The company has set up a website at 2k.injectionmoulding.net where you can specify the details of an injection unit and call for a quotation, which is e-mailed the same day. You could then place the order in the same way.

Wider distribution for Belotti

August 24, 2000 - Representation for Belotti routers has been spread between Cannon group companies in the UK. Cannon Shelley has been supplying Belotti routers for trimming thermoformings for some time, and now ESU Cannon has been appointed to cover non-thermoforming applications. Belotti's 3 and 5 axis machines can carry routing heads or water jet cutting equipment.

Rapid pay-back for PVC mixers

August 24, 2000 - Diosna PVC mixers from Germany are now available in the UK and Ireland from STB Engineering. Diosna mixers are already in use at several companies including Polypipe Civils and Spectus Systems. STB plans to install complete mixing systems based on Diosna mixers combined with STB materials handling systems and controls, and says that any company converting more than 5,000 tonnes/year which does not have its own mixing operation would get a pay-back in less than 12 months.

MD for Britton's Letchworth plant

August 24, 2000 - Britton Consumer, the flexible packaging production and conversion division of the Britton Group, has appointed Paul Broadfield as managing director of its Letchworth plant. He joins from National Packaging Group where he was responsible for setting up overseas operations.

Irish sales for K-Tron

August 24, 2000 - A new company represents materials handling specialist K-Tron International in the Republic of Ireland. Production Services Ltd of Dublin will sell the full range of K-Tron Soder, Hasler and Hurricane feeders, conveying systems and bulk materials handling equipment.

Extrusion takeaway

August 24, 2000 - The range of extruders and downstream equipment available for immediate delivery at Plastic Extruders has been expanded to include 20, 25, 35 and 60 mm extruders and various haul offs and saws. Plastex started its 'available today, delivered tomorrow' plan in 1996 with a 60 mm extruder and two small haul offs, and it has been extended annually, creating a sales growth of 30 per cent for the company's machinery division.

Additives on-line

August 24, 2000 - Albermarle Corporation, Cytec Industries and GE Plastics are setting up a trading web site to deal in polymer additives. PolymerAdditives.com opens for business in the autumn, enabling users to buy products from the three companies in a single transaction.

Another step towards cheaper nylon 6

August 24, 2000 - Shell has joined DSM in a research project to find a new way of making caprolactam, the base monomer of nylon 6. Caprolactam is normally made from cyclohexane or phenol, but these processes create large amounts of unwanted ammonium sulphate. The new Altam process, developed by DSM in association with DuPont, uses butadiene and carbon monoxide as feedstock, and produces no ammonium sulphate. Shell's contribution to the research is catalysis for the first step in the four-stage process. DSM sees the Altam process ultimately reducing the cost of caprolactam, and thereby increasing the competitiveness of nylon 6.

World scale PET producer plans European expansion

August 24, 2000 - KoSa, the US-based polyester producer formed by the purchase of the Hoechst polyester business by Koch Industries and IMASAB in 1998, is to build a 150,000 tonnes PET plant in Europe as part of a 360,000 tonnes expansion programme. The site is still to be decided on; the company already has plants in Germany and the Netherlands. Both the European plant, and a similar-sized plant scheduled for North America, will be completed mid-to-late 2002. The balance of the capacity increase is a 60,000 tonnes expansion of the Offenbach, Germany, site due to be completed by the end of next year.
     The packaging resin business, the subject of this expansion, is one of five business sectors into which KoSa supplies polyesters, the others being intermediates and polymers, textile fibres, technical filament and tyre cord.
Beer bottle PET enables in-bottle pasteurisation  A recent addition to the packaging resin range is a PET for beer bottles which withstands tunnel pasteurisation, enabling the beer to be pasteurised in the bottle as is done with glass. With other PET resins, says the company, the beer must be either flash pasteurised and then bottled, or cold-filtered. Other applications for the 2201 grade are juices, isotonic drinks and other hot-fill applications, for which its improved heat-set characteristics are said to allow higher production levels, lighter bottles and more storage flexibility than traditional hot-fill applications. Contact.

New representation for Extrusion Dies

August 22, 2000 - A new company has been set up to represent American flat film die manufacturer Extrusion Dies Inc in the UK. For many years EDI has been represented by Copperhunt, but now Copperhunt founder Syd Whitehead is winding down the business pending retirement, fellow director Jim Sinclair has started Flat Dies UK to continue the EDI representation.
     Flat Dies UK can be found at PO Box 5732, Derby, DE21 5ZP. Telephone: 01332 833153; fax: 01332 833181; email flatdiesuk@btclick.com.

Thermoforming investment in Manchester

August 22, 2000 - Plastics Manchester, part of thermoforming specialist Thompson Plastics Group, has ordered two large capacity thermoforming machines from Cannon Shelley at a cost of £480,000. The machines, with a forming ability up to 3 metres, will be delivered in November and will increase the company's capacity by 25 per cent.
     Plastics Manchester's main business is in touring caravans, sanitaryware, handling trays and general moulding, but in recent years the company has followed the parent group's lead into higher specification formed products, such as components for fork lift truck cabs.

Why the materials companies are smiling again

      Polymer sales by Bayer increased 27 per cent in the first half of this year to Eur 5·5 billion, echoing the trend generally across the group's chemicals and pharmaceuticals related businesses. Group sales were up 22 per cent to Eur 14·8 billion. Profit trends from polymers were below the 31 per cent group increase because of higher raw materials prices.
      Borealis increased its operating profit 67 per cent in the half year to Eur 112 million on sales up 42 per cent to Eur 1·802 million. Sales volumes were actually lower than in the first half of 1999 because of maintenance and other disturbances - including a strike - but selling prices climbed through the two quarters while naphtha fell very slightly from Q1 to Q2. Average market prices for PE and PP in the second quarter were 63 per cent higher than in the same quarter last year.

Can you pay your salary bill?

August 11, 2000 - Financial analyst Plimsoll Publishing, which specialises in comparative assessments of groups of companies by taking oblique views of their businesses, is now using salary increases as a way of comparing plastics companies. It is assuming a 3·2 per cent average salary increase for next year, and has assessed companies' ability to pay this increase.
     So far it has turned this spotlight on 320 plastics moulders, and found that 159 will be unable to absorb such an increase in salaries. Plimsoll has also applied the treatment to 285 plastics distributors (are there that many?!?) and found 125 unable to pay - based on the assumption of zero sales growth. On September 1 it will be posting on its web site (www.plimsoll.co.uk) financial details of the 10 companies most likely to be able to pay higher salaries.

Hi-Class/Labotek one-stop shop

August 11, 2000 - Hi-Class Machinery and Labotek (UK) are joining forces in a 'one-stop shop' arrangement based at Labotek's Kettering premises. The two companies remain separate entities, but will both be run by Hi-Class managing director Bob Wilson. Kevin Horne, who was Labotek's MD, has returned to Jenco as its sales director.
     Hi-Class sells the NPM range of injection moulding machines from Italy, alongside ancillary equipment from Boe-Therm, PRM and Dega. Labotek's dryers and material handling equipment will complement the range.

Labfacility moves

August 11, 2000 - Temperature sensor and instrumentation manufacturer Labfacility has moved its headquarters from Teddington to Feltham, and expanded its manufacturing capacity at Sheffield and Bognor Regis. The new Feltham address is:
8 Feltham Business Complex, Browells Lane, Feltham, Middlesex TW13 7LW. Telephone 020 8818 1888, fax 020 8818 1899.

GE buys silicones compounder

August 11, 2000 - GE Silicones in the USA has bought American Silicones, a custom compounder of silicone elastomers, and will integrate it with its existing custom compounding operations in California.

£1 million first stage investment as Brittons' boosts bumpers and bins

August 11, 2000 - Britton's Plastics has just completed a £1 million expansion encompassing the installation of a 3,150 tonnes Husky injection moulding machine - twice as big as any previous machine at the plant. A 2,700 tonnes Husky is scheduled for purchase later this year.
     The new machine has a Sepro CNC robot, and called for a new chilled water cooling system and improved craneage. It has been bought to mould bumper components for a new Honda car to be announced later this year, but initially it will mould wheelie bins, prior to the delivery of the second Husky, which is specifically for wheelie bin work.
     Brittons reckons that this investment will make it a potential leader in UK wheelie bin production. This is particularly so as households install multi-bins for recycling: Brittons says it is the only UK company making the 190 litre bins.
     Brittons was bought less than a year ago by the Fletchworth Group, which pledged to invest in new technology to increase the company's £6 million turnover.

MIR builds giant twin injection moulders

August 11, 2000 - Injection moulding machine builder MIR of Italy is involved in the production of two coupled twin machines, one of 8,000  tonnes and the other of 9,600  tonnes.
     The 8,000 tonne machines - two coupled 4,000 tonnes Ecologicas - is for a Spanish manufacturer of handling systems. The two machines can operate independently, but can be coupled as one, when the control systems act as master and slave.
     The 9,600 tonne machine (two coupled 4,500 tonne units) is being bought by a European-based multinational company.

Bayer in Mexican PC sheet deal

August 11, 2000 - Bayer has continued its polycarbonate sheet expansion with a joint venture in Mexico. It has entered a 50:50 partnership with Grupo IMSA, which is the country's market leader in GRP sheet. Demand for polycarbonate sheet in Mexico is growing at around 15 per cent a year.

Guidance for food packaging manufacturers

August 11, 2000 - Changing regulatory requirements for food packaging in Europe are covered in a new set of guidelines from European Plastics Converters. The European hygiene directive 93/43/EEC harmonises legislation covering the hygiene of foodstuffs and EuPC has produced guidelines for packaging manufacturers incorporating a code of practice. EuPC has a website at http://www.plasticsconverters.eu - or will have when it's finished.

Ineos buys South African Perspex producer

August 7, 2000 - Ineos Acrylics, the company which bought the ICI Perspex business, has bought the South African Perspex licence holder Acrylic Products of Durban, part of the chemicals and explosives group AECI, for R70 million (£6,690,240). Acrylic Products has been making Perspex in South Africa since 1966.
     Ineos claims world leadership in methyl methacrylate with a capacity of 600,000 tonnes. This includes a recent expansion of 45,000 tonnes at two plants in the USA in both polymer and sheet. In July Ineos bought Bonar Polymers from Low & Bonar for £11·5 million. Bonar Polymers makes speciality acrylic resins at Newton Aycliffe.
     Ineos has plans for further UK investment when it builds a pilot plant for a new, patented, ethylene-based process which it describes as 'the first major step-change in technology since ICI invented the commercial route in 1934'.

Hanna completes Cadillac disposal

August 7, 2000 - M A Hanna has sold the remaining parts of its Cadillac Plastics business to Thyssen Krupp Materials & Services. The bulk of Cadillac Plastics was sold to G E Plastics in May as part of the restructuring operation in which Hanna agreed to merge with Geon. Four business remained. The Richmond Aircraft Products unit was later sold to European aerospace company UMECO plc, and now the semi-finished materials distribution companies in Germany, France and Spain have gone to Thyssen Krupp.

Moulder doubles factory size

August 7, 2000 - Trade injection moulder Morris Plastics has opened a new factory at Sowerby Bridge which, at 27,000 sq ft, is twice the size of its previous premises. The company is part of the security products packaging group API.

Antiox up again

August 7, 2000 - Great Lakes Chemical Corporation is to further increase the price of its Lowinox antioxidants on September 1. The company is planning, where contracts allow, a global 10 per cent increase in the price of Lowinox and Anox speciality antioxidants used where process stabilisation or long term heat stabilisation is required.

Inergy buys into Japanese fuel tank business

August 7, 2000 - Inergy Automotive Systems, the automotive fuel systems joint venture between Solvay and Plastic Omnium, has consolidated its position in the Japanese market by buying the plastic fuel systems operation of Nissan Motor Co. The takeover, through Inergy's affiliate company Solvay Automotive Asia, has strategic significance in that the Japanese motor industry has not yet taken to plastics fuel tanks on the scale of manufacturers in Europe and the USA, but the pace is quickening.