September 29, 2000 - Ferromatik Milacron has outlined the future for its European injection moulding machine production, and is putting a lot of faith in all-electric machines.
     The company is aiming to increase machine production at Malterdingen in Germany by 10 per cent a year, starting from a target of 800 machines this year. To achieve this growth it is introducing the Maxima range of two-platen machines which, at the lower tonnage sizes, will be aimed at the 'standard machine' market (Ferromatik feels it is more readily identified with special machines such as multi-component models than with general purpose machines), and will be extended upwards to 3,100 tonnes, taking Ferromatik into the big machine sector where it has not been active in Europe.
     Alongside these machines Ferromatik continues with its K-TEC series of fully hydraulic three-platen machines on which it bases its multi-component, Mono-sandwich and other speciality machines. And in the mix of special and general purpose machines it is steadily selling the all-electric Elektra machines, which currently account for some 20 per cent of sales. Within the electric machine range is a dedicated optical disc machine which, while this is a specialised market, falls in with Ferromatik's growth plan by creating volume production of essentially identical electric machines - and this year output will be between 70 and 80.
     The Maxima range was first produced in the USA, and follows the Magna as the Milacron standard hydraulic machine for international production. The company aims to standardise production at point of sale, but differing market requirements mean that some machine types are only built on one continent. Starting production of the big Maxima machines in Europe is recognition that there is sufficient demand to warrant local production in Europe - and the conversion of a storage area at Malterdingen into a new production hall. But each production centre still has its specialities. For instance in Germany Ferromatik builds the K-TEC machines which are exported to the USA - the USA being the German factory's biggest single export market - while in the USA it builds BMC machines for which there is insufficient market in Europe to justify local production. It also builds electric machines up to 850 tonnes, which will be built in Europe when there is sufficient demand.

Topas plant opens and further investment is slated in LFRT

September 29, 2000 - Ticona has opened the Topas cycloolefin copolymer plant it has been building at its Ruhrchemie site in Oberhausen, Germany, for the past 18 months, and is to further increase capacity for Celstran and Compel long fibre thermoplastic composites.
     The Topas plant has a capacity of 30,000 tonnes, and has cost around Euro 60 million. Topas, which is noted for optical clarity and a high moisture among other properties, has potential ranging from pharmaceutical packaging to optical components. It is also being tried as a blown film additive to LLDPE.
     The 2,000 tonnes expansion in Celstran and Compel capacity at the Kelsterbach/Frankfurt, Germany, site is in addition to that announced a year ago and will bring global capacity for these materials up to 18,000 tonnes. Investment cost is around Euro 2 million and the line is scheduled to start operating in the spring of next year.

Novolen sale gets EC green light

September 26, 2000 - The European Commission has given the go-ahead for the sale of Targor's Novolen polypropylene technology business to a joint venture between ABB Lummus and Equistar. The sale of the business was a condition laid down by the EC for the merger between Elenac, Montell and Targor.
     The joint venture, which is 80 per cent owned by ABB, has been named Novolen Technology Holdings. It is not buying any physical assets, but the catalyst, process and product technologies for making Novolen, and the right, alongside Targor, to market and license Targor's metallocene polypropylene technology. ABB Lummus is a worldwide supplier of ethylene and propylene technologies, but the EC was satisfied that it was not currently active in PP technology licensing, so there would be no accumulation of market shares.
     In parallel with the Novolen sale, Engelhard Corporation is to buy Targor's PTK catalyst manufacturing facility in Tarragona, Spain, and will be the exclusive supplier of polyolefin catalysts to Novolen Technology Holdings.

New PP plant for Iran

September 26, 2000 - A 300,000 tonnes polypropylene plant using Montell technology is to be built by Tecnimont for Marun Petrochemical Company in Iran. Completion date is scheduled as 2003. Tecnimont is currently building another PP plant in Iran.

Laporte sells compounding operation

September 25, 2000 - Laporte is pulling out of polymer compounding with the sale of a large slice of its business portfolio to an American investment bank. In order to concentrate on speciality organic chemicals, the company is selling businesses in pigments, additives, compounds, water technology, timber treatment and electronics to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, through a specially set-up holding company K-L Holdings. The £810 million proceeds will be used to repay debt, provide a cash fund for acquisitions, and to give a £200 million return to shareholders.
     The businesses being sold had a combined turnover in 1999 of £494 million, with an operating profit before exceptional items of £83 million and contributed around 55 per cent of Laporte's sales. Net assets at the end of last year were £233 million. Trading in this year has been adversely affected by the strength of Sterling, and of late there have been further adverse effects from the rising price of oil and other raw materials.
     Following the disposal Laporte will be active in fine chemicals, performance chemicals, and catalysts and initiators, areas in which it plans to grow both organically and by acquisition. Three quarters of its sales will come from Europe and the rest mainly from North America.
     K-L Holdings plans to retain the existing managements of the businesses, who also share ownership. The business will operate from Princeton, New Jersey, and executive director Mike Kenny is leaving the Laporte board to become president of the new grouping. Also leaving is Peter Fearn who who will be going elsewhere, and chairman George Duncan, who had previously announced his intention to retire. The new chairman will be Jim Leng, and Tony Alexander, currently a non-executive director, will become deputy chairman.
     Shareholder approval and regulatory clearance have yet to be gained, but Laporte expects the sale to be completed by the end of November.
     Two years ago Laporte combined its three compounding businesses into a global compounding operation and began a series of investments to create a manufacturing structure in which identical materials could be made on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK this involved an investment of around £15 million in building a new plant in Syston, Leicestershire.

New Japanese version of in-mould painting

September 25, 2000 - Another version of in-mould painting is reported from Japan. Ube Industries and Dainippon Toryo Co have developed a process in which paint is injected into the mould after a component has been moulded, by controlled release of the clamping force. The heat in the mould cures the paint instantly. The new process, for thermoplastics, follows a similar process from Dainippon Toryo for thermosets and SMC. Krauss Maffei was working on a similar process in Europe several years ago.
     The paints used contain no organic solvents, so the process is said to be environmentally beneficial, as well as achieving a good surface finish at lower cost than other coating methods.

Air flow control makes new dryers more efficient

September 22, 2000 - Improvements to the efficiency of dryer operation have been made by three manufacturers through increased sophistication of the air movement around the granules.
     Two dryers which dispense with the desiccant bed and which are both claimed by their manufacturers to herald a breakthrough in drying technology have been introduced by American companies. The new machine from Maguire which is claimed to 'render obsolete the hot-air and desiccant drying methods employed in the plastics industry for half a century' is vacuum aided, while the Novatec unit which represents 'a dramatic breakthrough that will re-define how the industry views dryers' uses compressed air.
     And nearer to home, Colormax has used compressed air to improve the efficiency of the desiccant.
     Maguire's new concept is simplicity itself. Instead of heating the pellets and then letting the moisture work its way to the surface, the Low Pressure Dryer applies a vacuum to the material to draw the moisture out. The company says that this can reduce drying time from 4 hours to 40 minutes, and cut energy consumption by up to 75 per cent.
     Other benefits are shorter start-up times, faster colour changes and the elimination of the desiccant bed regeneration process.
     The first model in the new series is a beside-the-machine unit for processing lines running up to 45 kg/hr - small extruders and 60 per cent of injection moulding machines, says Maguire. This model has already gone on sale in the USA priced at $12,500, and will become available elsewhere later this year. Maguire reckons that the cost of a comparable hot air/desiccant unit is around $12,000 - plus $500 - $1,000 every time the desiccant bed is replaced.
     Further models will include a smaller capacity unit for machine mounting and a larger capacity for higher throughputs, such as PET preform moulding. PET moulders in particular may enjoy additional benefits as the reduced heat input to the material may lessen the drop in intrinsic viscosity which creates processability and end product property problems.
     Maguire is not claiming to have invented the idea of vacuum drying - it is used in, for example, the manufacture of plastics materials and the processing of coffee - rather what it has done is to translate a high volume batch process into a smaller scale, virtually continuous process.
     The physics behind vacuum drying are quite straightforward. The boiling point of water drops as the pressure drops, from 100 degC at 760 mm of mercury (sea level atmospheric pressure) to 56 degC at 635 mm of mercury. The LPD dryer draws a vacuum of 737 mm - not far short of the perfect vacuum at sea level.
     In operation the material is heated to 71 - 105 degC before the dryer is evacuated. At this temperature and under operating vacuum material needs only about 20 minutes to reach required dryness. Maguire says that conventional dryers get the material hotter - 82 - 177 degC - and keep it there for around 4 hours, adding to its heat history.
     This difference in operating time also enables the Maguire dryer to run with smaller batches of material, because the material is ready to run sooner, which brings more flexibility in start-up procedures and colour changes.
     This is aided by the three-part cycle which the machine runs to. There are three vacuum chambers, each holding around 16 kg of material. At any one time one chamber is being filled and then heated for around 20 minutes; the second chamber, which has been heated, is sealed and the vacuum drawn; and material in the third chamber is being transferred to the receiver on the processing machine.
     Colour changes can be planned 'on the fly' by switching the dryer into its clean mode about an hour before the change, and cleaning out the vacuum chambers as they become empty, ready for the new colour. Alternatively additional vacuum chambers can be supplied, ready to slot into the drying sequence.
     Cleaning the vacuum chambers has been designed to be easy. They have lift out handles to enable them to be removed, cleaned with a blow gun, and returned to the carousel, where they are self-aligning.
     Control of the dryer is through thumbwheel setting of recommended parameters. The control software maintains the temperature and vacuum strength within specified limits, and stores settings for materials that will be run again.
     The Novatec NovaDrier operates without desiccants or moving parts by using an enhanced version of a technology developed in 1991 by the US Navy in which material is dried by a combination of compressed air and a proprietary adsorption medium which has a much longer life than a desiccant bed.
     There are other compressed air dryers on the market, but Novatec makes the point that the NovaDrier gives air of a constantly low dew point, and says that it uses air at only half the rate of competitive equipment. The smallest NovaDrier uses 1·2 cu ft/min while the largest uses 28 cu ft/min.
     Compressed air from any source can be used. It does not need to be refrigerated or specially dried. The air passes through two filters and then through the adsorption medium, through a regulator and into a heater where it mixes with the return air from the drying hopper. Moisture from the process is expelled through a relief valve.
     There is no process motor, regeneration motor or regeneration heater. There are no valves and no cooling coils on high temperature applications. Novatec says the only maintenance requirement is the need to change filters periodically.
Next column

     Air from the drying medium is -40 degC or lower, which Novatec says means that the material is dried at a consistently higher quality than conventional dryers with dew points above zero. This consistency is said to eliminate the waste from ruined batches that are associated with spikes or deviations in drying temperatures. The NovaDrier also constantly purges volatiles from the process.
     The dryer is made from stainless steel and its hoppers are insulated for better temperature control and to reduce the amount of heat radiated into the atmosphere. There are six models with capacities ranging from around 2 to 50 kg/hr - Novatec says the technique is not suitable for throughputs above this range.
     Novatec also says the NovaDrier is more energy-efficient than desiccant type dryers. In a comparison exercise with one of its own model desiccant dryers Novatec achieved annual savings equivalent to around £220 with the smallest unit and more than £3,000 with the biggest.
     Colormax has also adopted compressed air for a new range of dryers, only in this case it is used to improve the performance of a desiccant system.
     Compressed air gives up its moisture more rapidly than air at atmospheric pressure and this principle has been applied by Colormax to save energy compared with traditional technology.
     The saving in energy relates to the temperature of return air after drying. This normally has to be cooled down to 60 degC from about 120 degC to ensure that the desiccant effectively removes moisture. The Colormax principle eliminates this loss of heat, together with a 15 per cent ambient heat loss, and can result in an electrical energy saving equivalent to 20 p/hr, says the company.
     Drying of plastics granules is achieved by blowing hot air through a drying hopper diffuser screen and simultaneously introducing 'super dry' air into the system. This air can be dried to 1 part of moisture per million and is generated by using two HDPE desiccant bottles tested to 10 bar. The bottles are filled with molecular sieve material grade 542 crystalline aluminium silicate.
     Almost all moisture is removed when compressed air is passed through the desiccant. The super dry air is then injected into the hot air in the dryer. Some of this air is bled at the same time into the other desiccant bottle, thereby regenerating it. Air flow is changed from one bottle to the other every 10 to 15 minutes by a timer controlled valve to ensure that a constant supply of dry air is maintained.
     Visual monitoring is facilitated by passing the air through a transparent tube containing silica gel mounted on the control panel. This would change from blue to pink if a potential problem arose. Energy savings are achieved because no heat is required to regenerate the desiccant. This is normally heated up to 290 degC and then cooled. The heat energy is wasted, as well as time involved.
     Colormax mobile driers now have solid state switching, heavy duty metal clad heating elements and CAL 9000 temperature control with PID. Three separate systems provide for over-temperature protection. The CAL control setpoint limits temperature deviations and is supplemented by an independent variable thermostatic control. There is also a thermal fuse on the heating element chamber.
     Dryer design features chassis-built main control boards for simple construction. Lower cost hot air models can later be converted to dehumidified air, if required.

Blending with COC can improve film properties

September 22, 2000 - Increased stiffness, better transparency and optimal frictional properties are yielded by a novel packaging film made from a blend of Ticona Topas cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) and LLDPE. The film also offers better moisture barrier with reduction of breathability.
     The blend has been demonstrated by Macro Engineering & Technology of Ontario and can be run on standard blown film lines. It provides 0·025 mm mono layer film with greater stiffness than comparable films made from LLDPE alone. Tests show that adding 15 per cent Topas COC to LLDPE increases the film modulus from about 170 Mpa to more than 480 Mpa. Addition rates for Topas are from 10 to 25 per cent.
     Topas COCs are a family of polymers with exceptionally low moisture absorption, superior transparency and high stiffness and strength. Available grades have heat distortion temperatures up to 170 degC. Topas improves film clarity and the barrier effect against moisture. Lower surface friction also results and the combination of properties brings advantages in the reduction of additives that might impair film breathability.
     The new material can also improve packaging line productivity because greater stiffness, coupled with better slip properties, permit higher machine speed. Hot tack strength and ultimate seal strength are optimised while maintaining the same seal initiation temperature. This can decrease rejects, accelerate filling and allow thinner sealant layers to be used.
     FDA approval has been given to Topas for dry food contact applications. It also complies with food additive regulations for aqueous, acidic, fatty and alcohol-containing foods.

Vespel distributor for the UK

September 22, 2000 - DuPont Engineering Polymers has appointed Ensinger to distribute its Vespel polyimide parts and shapes in the UK and Germany.

UK debut for new big Arburg

September 22, 2000 - Arburg's new 250 tonne Allrounder 630S injection moulding machine goes on show in the UK next week at an open house at the company's Warwick plant. For an invitation: contact.

Pellets-to-product APET packaging

September 22, 2000 - Huhtumaki Van Leer has invested more than £500,000 in APET sheet extrusion for its Gosport and Leeds plants. At Leeds it is making sheet for subsequent thermoforming on its Kiefel machines while at Gosport the sheet extrusion is being run in-line with a Brown thermoformer.
     The company says this is the first time that APET sheet production and forming have been integrated on the same site in the UK, and that it is possibly unique in Europe. By cutting its previous dependence on bought-in sheet, Van Leer is no longer susceptible to disruptions which may take place in the supply chain. It also has greater control over quality and is able to recycle materials on-site.
     The company sees growing demand for PET packaging from increasing requirements for food product visibility in high clarity packaging combined with a reluctance by some outlets to accept PVC. With the new production facilities has come a new Fresh Close range of packaging for salads, sandwich fillings and similar 'deli' products. APET gives the packaging glass-like clarity combined with durability, crack resistance, resistance to oils and fats, and a working temperature range of -40 degC to 65 degC.

SIG strips out the Krupp name

September 22, 2000 - The Krupp name has now been dropped from the blow moulding machinery businesses sold by Thyssen Krupp to SIG Swiss Industrial Company Holding. The holding company Krupp Kunststofftechnik is renamed SIG Plastics International and the two extrusion blow moulding businesses Krupp Kautex and Fischer-W Müller have been merged as SIG Blowtec. The PET two-stage stretch blow division Krupp Corpoplast is now SIG Corpoplast.
     To round out its PET stretch blow operations SIG has set up two new subsidiaries. SIG PETtec takes over the PET injection and stretch blow machinery activities previously developed and marketed by Krupp Kautex and Krupp Corpoplast, while SIG Moldtec takes over all PET tooling activities.
     International subsidiary names have also been updated, creating SIG Plastics Technologies (UK), SIG Plast Equip (France), SIG Tecnologia Plastics (Italy), SIG Plastics Technologies (USA), SIG Plastics Technologies (Canada), SIG Tecnologia para Plásticos (Argentina), SIG Tecnologia para Plásticos (Brazil) and SIG Plastics Technologies & Co (China).

Steady growth forecast for PE film

September 21, 2000 - Film extrusion in Europe is predicted to continue growing at 3 - 4 per cent over the next five years in a new report, Guide to the Polyethylene Film Industry in Europe from AMI. Assuming this is correct, it will mean a market of more than 7·5 million tonnes by 2004.
     AMI's new report includes for the first time operations in central Europe, bringing up to 1,300 the number of companies it has identified in the market. The largest number of companies is in Italy, with the biggest companies located in Germany and Belgium. The report notes that the number of independent sites has declined as they have been bought up by bigger groups.
     At 6·5 million tonnes, the European polyethylene film market accounted for more than 20 per cent of the total European polymer market in 1999. Conventional LDPE still accounts for major part of demand - around 55 per cent - but there is growth in other grades, especially linear and metallocene materials. Approximately 75 - 80,000 tonnes of mPE was used in 1999, representing a near doubling of the 1998 volume. The use of HDPE also increased in 1999, 12 per cent up on the previous year, partly accounted for by a large increase in the use of MDPE grades.
     Bags and sacks remain the most prominent use for PE film at 40 per cent, with shrink and stretch packaging accounting for 25 per cent.
     The report costs £195.

DSM increases nylon prices

September 21, 2000 - DSM is increasing nylon prices and warning of more to come. Its Akulon nylon 6 and 66 go up Euro 150/tonne on October 1 because of higher raw material prices. DSM says earlier price rises were not sufficient to counter higher costs, and that if raw material prices continue to rise, a further price increase may be necessary in January. The company adds that because of strong demand for nylon it has to achieve reinvestment price levels to avoid shortages in the long term.

Subsea composites companies combine

September 21, 2000 - Subsea engineering group CRP, based in Skelmersdale, has bought Emerson & Cuming Composite Materials of the USA, which is also a specialist in buoyancy systems for the offshore oil and gas industry. The enlarged group now employs areound 325 people and has an anticipated turnover this year of more than $80 million.

Antioxidant price increase

September 21, 2000 - Great Lakes Chemical Corporation is increasing the cost of its Lowinox 624-98 intermediate antioxidant globally by 15 per cent on October 1. On the first of this month it increased the price of its specialty antioxidants.

Dyson invests to bring mouldings in-house

September 21, 2000 - Vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson is spending £13 million on expanding its in-house moulding facility at its Malmesbury, Wiltshire plant. It is installing 13 new moulding machines and adding 100 staff to work on a 12 hour shift pattern. The expanded facility will enable the company to increase from 40 to 65 per cent the proportion of its plastics components that are produced in-house.
     The investment comes as something of an about-turn, following remarks by company founder James Dyson earlier in the year. In February he castigated Britain for restrictive planning regulations and an uncertain economic policy, and threatened to move production to the Far East. He was reacting to failure to get permission to extend the Malmesbury factory, coupled with trading disadvantages stemming from the strength of Sterling. He still can't extend the factory - the new expansion comes through internal reorganisation - and the strength of the pound is still bringing little return from European sales, but the new investment has been earmarked to get the maximum benefit from the existing facilities.

Pallets, from plastics, for plastics

September 20, 2000 - Pallets made from recycled plastics, and intended for use within the plastics industry, are now available after a five year development process. The Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe specified that the pallets should be made from 100 per cent post-user reclaim, and has overseen their testing at 10 polymer producing companies. There are two designs, the AP2 at a standard 1,200 x 1,000 mm for general use and the AP1 at 1,300 x 1,100 mm to accommodate 1,500 kg polymer bags and octabins. The pallets were designed and are being moulded by Wavin LASH in the Netherlands and Innova Packaging Systems in Belgium.

Price hike for polyethylene

September 20, 2000 - Elenac is increasing the price of polyethylene by Dm 0·1/kg across its whole range on October 1. It blames continuing increases in feedstock prices - naphtha has risen 188 per cent since January - which are damaging its margins for the third quarter.

Plastomer adds soft touch to bottles

September 20, 2000 - Bottles can be given a soft touch surface using a new blending technique from DEX Plastomers, a joint venture between Exxon/Mobil and DSM. It involves blending Exact plastomer - a low density ethylene octene copolymer - with polypropylene or polyethylene as appropriate, and coextruding it as an outer layer. The blend ratio varies according to the level of soft touch required, but is in the order of 20 - 90 per cent plastomer, and the outer layer can give tactile soft-touch properties at a thickness of 5 - 7  per cent of total wall thickness. When used with random copolymer polypropylene the soft touch surface maintains the clarity of the bottle.
     Exact plastomer is priced from around Dm 2·7 to Dm 3/kg, and can be added on the blow moulding machine as a dry blend. It is also FDA compliant. Sauer in Germany has commercialised a skin care lotion bottle using this process.
     As well as an aesthetic appearance, DEX Plastomers has also developed blends with Exact for impact modification, enabling random co-polymer PP to be used where otherwise it might compromise safety, such as for packaging household chemicals. Sauer developed a bottle for Henkel WC Frisch toilet cleaner in Germany which went into production towards the end of last year. Adding Exact to the blend enabled random copolymer PP to meet Henkel's standards on drop heights, while maintaining the clarity required to show the liquid level.
     To contact DEX Plastomers: +31 45 578 2401.

PET boom forecast in Africa/Middle East

September 20, 2000 - Rapid growth in PET production in Africa and the Middle East is forecast in a report on the use of PET for packaging in this region from PCI (PET Packaging, Resin & Recycling). Currently the region is a net importer of PET, but the report predicts that it will become a net exporter by 2003/4. Plants have been announced or are under construction for SANS in South Africa, SEPCO in Egypt and STPC in Iran, and PCI says there have been rumours and partial announcements of plants in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iran and North Africa. Total capacity of the region is forecast to be more than 1 million tonnes by 2009, while demand will rise from 321,000 tonnes for this year to 804,000 tonnes in 2009 - showing the potential surplus capacity.
     There is also growth in the processing sector - the last report on the region in 1998 listed 83 packaging producers while the new report lists 113, some of them consuming around 20,000 tonnes a year. PCI concludes that as well as becoming a resin exporter, the area could become a major packaging exporter, mainly of preforms, in the medium/long term. PCI contact: +44(0)1332 295200.

Lemo buys Stiegler

September 20, 2000 - German bagmaking machine producer SMR Stiegler Maschinenfabrik is being bought by Lemo Maschinenbau, a member of the Jagenberg Group. Lemo makes bagmaking machines, including systems for robotised packaging of the finished bags.

Conair/Rapid group adds automation interests

September 20, 2000 - Sewickley Capital, the US holding company which owns Conair and Rapid Granulator, has bought into another plastics ancillaries company. It has bought half of Automated Assemblies Corporation, which makes automation products and is a systems integrator for the plastics industry, from international injection moulder Nypro. Nypro remains a 50 per cent shareholder in AAC.

Dow adds Insite-made PP...

September 19, 2000 - Dow Plastics has introduced a molecular-engineered polypropylene alongside the other polyolefins made with its Insite catalyst technology. The new Inspire 112 material is a blown film grade intended as a 'drop in' alternative to polyethylene but with increased end product benefits.
     In production terms Inspire is said to offer 'superb' melt strength for air quench blown film, great bubble stability, and high output rates, gauge uniformity and draw down capabilities on both conventional and high stalk blown film lines. Only slight adjustments are needed to run it on conventional PE film lines.
     At the converting end, Inspire 112 is said to be suitable for stand-up pouches, meat and poultry packaging, pet food bags to heavy duty shipping sacks, soft paper tissue overwrap, hot filled bags, industrial bundling films and thin gauge films.
     The material is also suggested as a blend polymer for use with other ethylene-based polymers, and as a coextrusion layer for which it is said to offer superior inner layer adhesion.

...and plans MDI increase

September 19, 2000 - Dow Chemical is planning to increase its polymeric MDI capacity at Stade in Germany by 60,000 tonnes to 190,000 tonnes by the end of 2001, effectively tripling the plant's original capacity. This is part of a programme which includes expansion at Dow's Laporte, Texas, USA plant, and the construction of a new plant in the US Gulf Coast region.

New IR heating system cuts waste from short wave penetration

September 19, 2000 - An improved infra-red heating process for thin materials has been developed by Heraeus Noblelight. It reclaims energy lost through penetration by reflecting it in a form which is more readily used for heating.
     Infra-red heaters all produce energy at different wavelengths. Long wave and medium wave radiation tend to be absorbed by the target body, raising its temperature, but short wave radiation attempts to penetrate. The thinner the target, the greater the energy passing through, and doing little to raise the temperature.
     The new wavelength converter from Heraeus is a plate of ceramic fibres which absorbs around 95 per cent of the energy passing through the product to be heated. This absorption heats the plate's surface, converting it into a secondary emitter, and re-radiating otherwise lost short wave energy as long and medium wave IR, which can be absorbed by the target.
     As well as saving energy, this wavelength converter gives fast heating/cooling rates, and fits in small spaces.

Top changes at Hosokawa Micron

September 19, 2000 - David Fell, divisional director of Hosokawa Micron's powder and particle processing division, has been appointed managing director. He succeeds Michael Prior, who has been appointed to the newly created position of vice president of Hosokawa Micron International and president of Hosokawa Micron Powder Americas.

New MD for Porvair

September 19, 2000 - The new managing director of Porvair Technology is James Jenkinson, who moves from sales and marketing director of Rexson Systems, a precision engineering company in Kettering.

Battenfeld Gloucester to stop building in Britain

September 18, 2000 - Battenfeld is to cease building film and sheet lines in the UK as soon as possible. Production is to move to the Cincinnati Extrusion plant in Austria, and eventually to a new plant to be built next to Cincinnati.
     Battenfeld Gloucester Europe builds blown film, cast film and foam sheet extrusion lines at Droitwich. Around 70 jobs will be lost as manufacturing is stopped, but the site will remain open for sales and service, primarily serving the UK. Managing director Phil Nichols will become managing director of the new Vienna site, and will remain as managing director of Battenfeld Gloucester Europe.
     SMS, Battenfeld's parent group, cites the Euro as the reason for the move. Sales of Battenfeld film and sheet equipment in the European market have doubled in the past five years, which, says the company, 'leaves no alternative to extending the production capacity in the Euro-zone'. The decision to go to Vienna was based on the presence there of Battenfeld Kunststoffmaschinen making injection moulding machines, and Cincinnati Extrusion, which Battenfeld bought at the beginning of this year.
     Earlier in the year the manufacture of some heavy components was moved to Austria with the loss of a few jobs at Droitwich, fuelling rumours that Droitwich was to close. At the time Battenfeld strongly denied that this was anything more than a rationalisation of the manufacture of some component parts. The present decision to move all production to Austria, stresses the company, was only taken in the past four weeks.

Rhodia expands in silicone elastomers

September 18, 2000 - Rhodia has taken full control of EVSIL, an Italian manufacturer of heat cured silicone elastomers. The company was previously a joint operation between Rhodia and Gibitre, but will now be controlled through Rhodia's Enterprise Silicones subsidiary. EVSIL's products are used mainly in the automotive, domestic appliance, food and medical application industries, and the company has a current growth rate of around 10 per cent.
     The acquisition adds to Rhodia Silicones' development of its European Mix & Fix Center network which now has five centres, formulating and marketing ready-mixed silicone heatcure elastomers.

Wittmann buys into granulators

September 15, 2000 - Wittmann-Group of Austria, which makes robots and temperature controllers, has bought the French CMB granulator company. This continues the company's expansion into the wider area of plastics processing ancillaries. Last year it bought Canadian materials handling equipment company Nucon, and is planning to introduce a European version of the Nucon range.

Flame retardant price rise

September 15, 2000 - Great Lakes Chemical Corporation is increasing flame retardant prices. Its TMS, Trutint, Microfine and other grades of antimony trioxides went up today by $300/tonne in Europe and Asia/Pacific, and by $0·14/lb in the Americas. BA-59P and DE-83R brominated flame retardants go up 10 per cent on October 1, and other brominated flame retardants go up 5 per cent.

New top appointment at David S Smith

September 15, 2000 - Packaging group David S Smith (Holdings) has created a new position of chief operating officer, and appointed Tony Thorne, president of SCA Packaging's Corrugated Business Division. He starts on January 1.

Borealis chief to quit

September 15, 2000 - Svein Rennemo, chief executive officer and chairman of the executive board of Borealis, is to leave the company to do something 'new and different for my own personal development'. He will resign and leave by the end of March. A successor is being sought outside Borealis.

Chinese buy German composite pipe technology

September 15, 2000 - Unicor of Germany, a subsidiary of Finnish pipe systems specialist Uponor, has won a Eur 50 million contract to supply composite pipe technology to China. The contract covers 50 pipe extrusion lines, to be installed by Shenyan Ginde, a company in the Hong Yuan building materials production group. Deliveries have started and will continue over three years.

New agency for German screen printers

September 15, 2000 - Three dimensional screen printing equipment from ISIMAT of Germany is now available in the UK from Path2Print (contact). ISIMAT makes single- and multi-colour machines for printing on flat, round, oval, conical or asymmetrically shaped products, and automatic feeding, flame treating, corona treating UV or heat drying and automatic discharge equipment.

More room for rapid tooling

September 15, 2000 - Rapid tooling specialist Omega Plastics is moving into a factory three times the size of its existing site. Omega is a joint venture between Omega Plastics of Detroit, USA, and the Express Group, a Tyneside engineering company offering design-to-manufacture services. The move, to Kings Park on the Team Valley at Gateshead, is part of a £2 million brownfield site development by Express, and will move Omega from a 4,500 sq ft factory to 12,500 sq ft of production space with 3,800 sq ft of offices.
     Omega uses high speed machining of aluminium and P20steel to make injection moulds in two to five weeks, compared with 12 to 16 weeks by traditional methods.

Design award winners

September 15, 2000 - This year's Horners Award for excellence in plastics design and processing has gone to an educational aid used to teach children about the principles of engineering mechanisms such as gears and pulleys. Inventa is made by London-based Valiant Technology and incorporates moulded polypropylene and polystyrene parts.
     Runners up were Event Systems with its Rollaroad and Haberman Associates/Conran and Partners with the Anywayup cup. The Rollaroad is a portable roadway for temporary access made from polyethylene. It is half the weight of existing systems and can support vehicles of up to 45 tonnes and static loads up to 100 tonnes. The Anywayup cup is a non-spill trainer cup for children made from polyethylene and polypropylene. It incorporates a valve that, when a child first sucks, makes the cup drip proof, even if shaken or dropped.

EC approves McKechnie takeover

September 15, 2000 - The European Commission has approved the takeover of McKechnie by Cinven. Both companies are involved in plastics moulding, but the EC says the overlaps are limited and so should not result in any distortion of competition. The McKechnie takeover will be through a newly created company, BlueAzure.

Retrofit drive saves injection moulding energy

September 15, 2000 - A retrofittable variable speed drive and control system has been developed for injection moulding machines by Powermiser. The control system determines power requirement, calculates the most efficient configuration of the hydraulic system, calculates the optimum motor speed and communicates that to a variable speed drive, and then adjusts the hydraulic valves accordingly.
     Powermiser says the system can be fitted to most makes of injection moulding machine in a few hours, and can achieve reductions in power comsumption of 30 - 70 per cent. The most benefit is achieved on medium to large machines, where payback is said to be as low as nine months. Contact.

Spiral welding makes pipe transport more efficient

September 15, 2000 - A process for spirally winding pipes from reeled strip is being developed by TWI in association with a research group in the Ukraine.
     Transporting pipes, particularly in difficult terrain such as remote areas, in natural disasters or in war zones, is inefficient due to the 'shipping air' syndrome. The process being researched by TWI packs a lot of pipe in a small van by shipping it as coils of strip around 1 - 2 mm thick. These are wound spirally in multiples and bonded at their edges using modified extrusion welding equipment.
     TWI says pipe from 90 to 1,600 mm diameter can be made this way, with wall thicknesses from 2 - 40 mm. Typical line speeds are around 30 m/hour depending on pipe size.

Vita subsidiaries invest

September 15, 2000 - British Vita sheet extrusion subsidiary Royalite Plastics has spent £1·2 million on an extrusion line to make triple layer acrylic-capped ABS sheet. The 2·5 m line, from Union in Italy, is reckoned to the widest such line in the UK, and has gone into the company's Newbridge plant in Scotland alongside five other sheet lines and a calender.
     Silvergate Plastics has ordered two twin screw compounding extruders from Leistritz for masterbatch production. The order represents a change in direction for Silvergate. The company has hitherto specialised in small lots with quick colour matching and turn round, and has relied on single screw extruders, supplemented by small scale twins such as Prism 24 mm machines. But now it sees a demand also for large production runs, hence the order for the two 50 mm Leistritz machines and attendant line equipment.

Solvay and Chevron Phillips start work on shared HDPE plant

September 14, 2000 - Solvay's US subsidiary Solvay Polymers and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company have started work on a jointly owned 300,000 tonnes slurry loop HDPE plant in Texas, USA, and have declared an intention to build a second plant at a Solvay Polymers site in 2005 - 2007. The new plant, scheduled for start-up at the end of 2002, will make general purpose blow moulding grades which will be marketed independently by each company.

Shell names a buyer for Kraton

September 14, 2000 - Shell has now found a buyer for its Kraton thermoplastic elastomer business, the last to go in an 18-month divestment programme to rid itself of companies it considers too far from the group's primary interest in base chemicals. The buyer will be an affiliate company of New York-based investment firm Ripplewood Holdings. Kraton has manufacturing plants around the world, and annual sales of around $600 million. Terms of the sale to Ripplewood are not being revealed. Shell recently announced an expansion in manufacturing capacity for Kraton.

Insurance specifically for the plastics industry

September 14, 2000 - The particular needs of the plastics industry are being addressed by insurance company Leagold Miller with a web site which it says offers comprehensive insurance geared to all sectors of the plastics industry, from extrusion and injection moulding to materials distribution. One feature reckoned to be novel is an increasing no-claims discount, like those applied to car insurance.

GE opens compounding plant in Thailand

September 14, 2000 - GE Plastics has moved into Thailand with an investment of around $19·4 million in a compounding plant at Rayong in the south east of the country. Initial capacity is around 30,000 tonnes of engineering compounds. The company is operating at 50 per cent of capacity and aims to increase to full capacity within two years. There is further potential to increase production to 60,000 tonnes per year.

Pipelife in Chinese joint venture

September 14, 2000 - Pipelife International, the pipe extrusion joint venture between Solvay of Belgium and Wienerberger of Austria, is to join with a Chinese company, making PVC and PE water pressure pipes and fittings and PE gas pipes. It already has a factory in Shanghai, and this is to be pooled with Changzhou Reinforced Plastics Factory, some 200 km to the north, to create Changzhou Pipelife Reinforced Plastic Pipe Co, owned 65 per cent by Pipelife.
     The pipe market around Shanghai has grown around 20 per cent annually over the past three years and is expected to continue this growth rate.

Pan takes on Spanish TPU agency

September 14, 2000 - Spanish TPU producer Merquinsa is now selling its range of materials for injection moulding, extrusion, melt coating and adhesives in the UK through Pan Polymers. Pan is offering an ex-stock supply of injection moulding and extrusion grades of natural Pearlthane alongside SBS, SEBS, TPO and other TPE alloys from Multibase of France.