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Expansion in materials distribution September 30, 2002
Interplas opened in Birmingham today with the announcement of several new materials distribution agreements.
GE Polymerland has extended the distribution of GE Plastics materials with the confirmation of two UK distributors, Polymer Compounders and Resin Express. Both companies have already been supplying GE materials, but are now recognised as authorised distributors which Polymerland says will 'help to strengthen even further our position in the UK market.'
PlastxWorld, formed last year out of the US and European plastics operations of Japan's Daicel Chemical Industries, has been appointed an official distributor in the UK, Ireland and the USA for Cheil Industries' Starex, Staroy and Staren styrene copolymer, polycarbonate and PBT. The company anticipates further additions to its distribution range.
The existing distribution by A Schulman of Degussa's Vestamid PA12 and PA612, Trogamid amorphous transparent polyamides and Vestodur PBT has been extended to give Schulman distribution across most of Western Europe, including the UK and Ireland, as well as in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.
BASF increases acrylic acid/ester prices September 30, 2002
BASF has increased its price for acrylic acid and acrylic esters worldwide by at least Eur 120/tonne.
W & H buys blown film components manufacturer September 30, 2002
German blown film exquipment manufacturer Windmöller & Hölscher is buying Klaus Reinhold Machinery, which makes blown film extrusion components such as sizing cages, haul offs and winders, and also makes bag making machines. Reinhold will continue as an independent operation, concentrating on the retrofit business.
Hesta installation at Riverside September 30, 2002
Pontypridd-based bottle manufacturer Riverside Plastics has topped off a £200,000 investment programme this year with the commissioning of two Hesta HS 451 extrusion blow machines. They are suitable for bottles between 5 and 250 ml. Also in this year's purchases have been additional automatic leak detection systems enabling 100 per cent pressure testing.
BASF and Bayer tighten the reins September 26, 2002
As the German-based polymer majors continue the restructuring moves started last summer, BASF and Basell are moving further away from direct sales to small customers, while Bayer has increased its long term job cuts.
In November BASF is selling its distribution companies to two major distributors, Albis and the Ravago Group, who, together with A Schulman of France, will handle all European small business for engineering polymers and polystyrene, with similar arrangements being made by Basell for the distribution of its polyolefins.
Albis Impex is to buy BASF's Swiss subsidiary Bascom, but the more far reaching change is the sale of other BASF distribution subsidiaries to Ravago, which, together with investment company KBC Investco and the new company's management, has set up a separately-operating distribution company in Belgium called Ultrapolymers Group. This will combine the BASF companies Nordisa in Spain, Margo in Portugal, the plastics business of BASF Trading Chemicals in Italy and Cheadle Colours and Chemical in Britain and Ireland together with the Basell businesses previously already handled within the Ravago Group.
The name Ultrapolymers reflects BASF's existing distribution company for engineering polymers in the UK, Ultra Polymers, which is a subsidiary of Cheadle Colours and Chemical. Ravago also owns 33 other plastics distribution companies worldwide, including Resin Express in the UK and 24 companies trading as Resinex which, it is reported, are to be rebadged as Resin Express.
As well as taking over most of BASF's distribution companies, Ravago, with its subsidiary EP Compounding, is to take over the BASF styrene copolymer compounding plant at Tarragona in Spain.
The European distribution network for BASF plastics breaks down as:
Ultrapolymers: UK, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Albis: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
Schulman: France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Separate arrangements are to be made in Italy.
Basell is broadly following the BASF line - specifically:
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, polyethylene and polypropylene will be distributed by Albis and Ultrapolymers.
In Germany, Advanced Polyolefins will be distributed by K D Feddersen (PP compounds) and Ultrapolymers (Catalloy process resins and PB-1).
In Austria and Switzerland, APO will be distributed by Omya (PP compounds) and Ultrapolymers (Catalloy process resins and PB-1).
In Benelux, PE, PP and APO will be distributed by Ultrapolymers.
In Portugal and Spain, the distribution network remains unchanged. However, Ultrapolymers now owns Margo and Nordisa.
In Italy, the current distribution network remains unchanged.
The situations in France, UK, Scandinavia and Greece will be finalised soon. In the UK Basell's polypropylene is currently distributed by Distrupol while Ultra Polymers handles the polyethylenes - Ultra's PP comes from TVK in Hungary.
Under a separate arrangement BASF's UK and Ireland distribution business for acrylic monomers in drums will be taken over by Honeywill & Stein of Sutton, Surrey, in October. BASF will continue to deliver bulk volumes by tank trucks. Honeywill & Stein is part of the IMCD Group of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which also owns BASF's European acrylic monomer distributor Interorgana Chemiehandel of Cologne, Germany. The massive staffing reductions being implemented by Bayer - a target of a further 8,500 job cuts in the next four years - have been jacked up sharply with the announcement that a further 4,700 jobs are to go by 2005. The redundancies are expected to take place across the group's operations, but beyond saying that 40 per cent of them will be in Germany, Bayer is not saying how each division will be affected.
Nova to mothball Carrington EPS plant September 26, 2002
Nova Chemicals is to shut its Carrington, Manchester, EPS facility temporarily as part of its styrenics business revamp, but will continue to make GPPS and HIPS at the site.
The shut down is to start in late October and European supply will be taken up by the plants at Ribecourt and Berre in France, and Breda in the Netherlands.
The company says that EPS demand in Europe has been weak over the past two years, resulting in low utilization rates across all four of its European plants. The idling of Carrington's annual capacity of 75,000 tonnes represents a 24 per cent decrease in Nova's European EPS capacity.
There will be some job losses.
Nova will continue to manufacture solid polystyrene at Carrington, where it has an annual capacity of 185,000 tonnes.
September 11 tips CAC Tooling into receivership September 26, 2002
A short term loss in orders has forced The CAC Tooling Group, includes Penton Tools, Vogue Moulds and Tool Teck (Wales), into receivership.
CAC Tooling is a £6·6 million turnover, High Wycombe-based designer and manufacturer of plastic injection moulding tools with customers in the automotive, IT and electronics sectors. Receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers says that the directors had to place the company into receivership when the world-wide downturn in 2001, together with the impact of the events of September 11, resulted in major projects being delayed.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is aiming to sell the business as a going concern.
Nickerson gets all Gefran's plastics business September 26, 2002
Nickerson Europe has become exclusive distributor of Gefran transducers in the plastics industry. Nickerson will hold its own stock as well as drawing on those held by Gefran in the UK and Italy and most requirements will be delivered within 24 hours from receipt of order.
Antimony oxide prices up again September 26, 2002
Continuing pressure on the price of antimony has triggered yet another price increase for Great Lakes Chemical Corporation's antimony trioxide which has gone up by $0·25/lb in the Americas and by $550/tonne in Europe and Asia Pacific. Antimony trioxide is sold under the trade names TMS, Timonox, Trutint and Microfine. The price for other antimony derivatives also increases depending on their antimony content.
'World's fastest' BOPP line September 26, 2002
A 10 m BOPP film line has been started up at Manuli Film in Italy. The Brückner Maschinenbau line is claimed as the world's largest and fastest high performance 10 m BOPP film line. It was designed to produce up to 41,250 tonnes/year with more than 7,000 kg/h extrusion output and speeds up to 500 m/min.
This is the third 10 meter BOPP line sold by Brückner worldwide and the eighth line bought from Brückner by Manuli since 1977.
New commercial director for Victrex September 26, 2002
Blair Souder is the new commercial director of Victrex, moving from GE Plastics where he was most recently global marketing director for emerging markets.
3M wins Horners Award September 26, 2002
The 2002 Horners Award for Plastics has gone to 3M UK for its Paint Preparation System. This is a disposable mixing and filtering paint system designed for use with gravity feed paint spray guns. It eliminates the need for separate mixing cups and filters and, because paint never comes into contact with the pot and collar, only the spray gun channel and adaptor need cleaning.
The Horners judges applauded the innovative use of disposable plastic components, including a collapsible plastic paint reservoir, and described the Paint Preparation System as 'an outstanding development in its field'.
The Highly Commended award was given to a joint venture between Amcor PET Packaging UK and the Nucon Corporation for their Dropbox pallet box which is used by all Amcor's major customers including Coca Cola.
Revamp for Clariant additives September 26, 2002
Clariant has restructured its Pigments & Additives Division with effect from January 2003, merging pigments and additives and dividing into four industry-focused business units for coating, plastics, printing and specialized industries.
Improved Viton available now September 26, 2002
DuPont Dow Elastomers' Advanced Polymer Architecture Viton fluoroelastomers are now available in commercial quantities. They have improved part and processing performance, and meet new sealing requirements in the automotive, chemical processing, aerospace and semiconductor industries.
The new Viton products are the result of an investment of $50 million in proprietary new polymerization and curing technology at Dordrecht in The Netherlands.
The first new types being offered by DuPont Dow are peroxide cured, with base-resistant types in development for fourth quarter release. These will offer resistance to caustics and other high pH chemicals as well as low temperature flexibility.
End user benefits from the new materials include improved compression set resistance and sealability, greater resistance to stretching in automated assembly and lower water swell and better acid resistance without the addition of metal oxides.
For rubber processors, the new peroxide cure types give better flow properties and demoulding, and fast curing. DuPont Dow says they will be able to achieve the improved compression set resistance demanded by end users with little or no post cure.
Project to predict the mechanical performance of rubber compounds September 26, 2002
Rapra Technology is joining forces with engineering consultancy Eatec to predict the mechanical properties of rubber compounds. Rapra says that to date the properties that describe a compound's mechanical performance have either been derived from time consuming tests or approximated. Its objective is to develop a neural network modelling tool that can predict the coefficients required by the mathematical models from knowledge of the rubber constituents and the cure process. With such a tool the need for testing is substantially reduced.
Eatec says it has established the feasibility of this technique and proved the method to be viable. However previous work was limited to variations of two additives and a range of cure states, and to progress further, a wider selection of variables must be considered.
An information day is being held on November 1 at Rapra's Shawbury headquarters where the two companies will be seeking industrial companies to join in the project.
Faraday Plastics is focusing on energy efficient injection moulding technology at a meeting to be held at Rapra Technology in Shawbury on November 18 in collaboration with Envirowise. The meeting will include presentations on: productivity benefits and energy savings from conformal tooling (Dr Kenny Dalgarno, Leeds University); pulsed heating and cooling (Rowland Evans, RE Promotion Services); detailed energy measurements in injection moulding (Andy Dawson, Bradford University) and energy, the environment, and why plastics can help (Johnathan Churchman-Davies, The Carbon Trust).
Philips Analytical becomes PANalytical September 26, 2002
The takeover by intrumentation and controls company Spectris of Philips subsidiary Analytical has been completed and the company renamed PANalytical. PANalytical supplies instrumentation and software for X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry.
DSM to expand super strong fibre production September 26, 2002
DSM is to expand its production capacity for Dyneema super strong polyethylene fibre by at least 40 per cent by building two new production lines in Greenville, North Carolina, USA. They will have a combined capacity of 1,300/1,600 tons per year, depending on grade, and will start up in two stages in 2004.
It is also to build two new production lines for Dyneema UD ballistic sheet material, one next to the existing UD line in Greenville (operational since 2001) and one in Heerlen, the Netherlands, next to the existing five Dyneema yarn production lines and the existing UD production line. The four new lines will cost around Eur 100 million.
The new lines will raise DSM's total capacity for Dyneema fibres to at least 4,500 tonnes and that for Dyneema UD to 2,000 tonnes.
Multi-million Middle East order for Valmet September 26, 2002
Valmet Converting has won an order worth more than $5 million to supply Atlas and General Vacuum equipment to Dubai Polyfilm of the United Arab Emirates. The order comprises one 8 m wide Atlas primary film slitter, one smaller Atlas CW800 2·5 m wide slitter rewinder and two 2,850 mm wide General K Series vacuum metallizers. The first machines will be delivered during the summer of 2003.
This will be the third film line to be installed by Dubai Polyfilm to meet increasing demand, particularly from the flexible packaging sector. It has bought Valmet equipment for some years. The first Atlas film slitter was ordered in 1997 for the first film line and since then the company has installed another Atlas primary and secondary film slitter, two General Vacuum metallizers and three Titan slitter rewinders.
Dubai Polyfilm is part of the Al Ghurair group, one of the biggest manufacturers of plastic film and flexible packaging materials in the Middle East.
Bayer UK names new head of polymers September 26, 2002
Martin Sixsmith has been appointed head of Bayer's polymers business group for the UK and Ireland. He has worked for the company's plastics business group for 25 years, and was most recently group marketing director.
Borealis sells compounding unit September 26, 2002
Borealis has sold its compounding unit in Cublize, France, to the plant's management. The plant produces 15,000 tonnes a year of polyethylene, polypropylene and engineering polymers compounds for use mainly in the automotive and appliance industries. It has been named AD Majoris, and Borealis is to purchase compound grades not produced by its other sites.
Borealis' European compound production will be focused now on its integrated sites at Beringen in Belgium and Schwechat in Austria. The Monza site in Italy will be developed as a non-integrated site.
Dow to expand European PET production September 26, 2002
Dow Europe is to build a second world scale PET production facility at its integrated Buna Sow Leuna Olefinverbund site in Schkopau, Germany, to come on-stream towards the end of 2004. The plant will have an annual production capacity of around 175,000 tonnes, bringing Dow's total annual PET production capacity in Europe to over 500,000 tonnes. In addition to the site in Schkopau, Dow also has manufacturing sites for PET in Ottana and Pisticci, Italy.
EVC improves profitability September 26, 2002
EVC International improved its profitability against lower selling prices for PVC during the first half of this year. Group turnover dropped from Eur 568·7 million in the first half of 2001 to Eur 536·6 million while operating result switched from a Eur 15·7 million loss to a Eur 4·4 million profit. The company's net loss for the first half of this year was Eur 4·8 million compared with a loss of Eur 26·7 million a year ago.
Start-up scheduled for Chinese acetal plant September 26, 2002
Work on the Chinese polyacetal plant to be built by Polyplastics, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, Korea Engineering Plastics and Ticona is to begin in spring 2003 and the new plant is expected to start operations in the second quarter of 2005. It will be located close to Shanghai in the Economic and Technological Development Area of Nantong, Jiangsu province.
The Chinese acetal market is estimated to be in excess of 100,000 tonnes and is expected to grow at more than 10 per cent annually. The new plant will have a capacity of 60,00 tonnes.
Vita invests more in US non-wovens September 11, 2002
British Vita has invested more money in its American non-wovens business. A new plant to make technical and specialty nonwovens for the air filtration, automotive, industrial, furniture and bedding markets has been opened at Schertz, 20 miles from San Antonio, Texas. Production will come on stream in November.
Total investment at the new plant amounts to £3·2 million. Last summer Vita Nonwovens added a new production line with an investment of £2·8 million at its High Point, New Carolina, facility.
Vita Nonwovens was created as part of the acquisition of the Olympic Products Division of Cone Mills Corporation in 1996. Worldwide turnover in 2001 was Eur 165 million.
PC sheet manufacturers band together September 11, 2002
A new trade association has been formed to promote the use polycarbonate sheet. The European Association of Manufacturers of Polycarbonate Sheet, is based in Zürich and has been set up by Estrusione Materiali Plastici of Switzerland, General Electric Plastics of the Netherlands, Makroform of Germany, and Paltough Industries and Polygal Plastics Industries from Israel. The president is Makroform managing director, Pierre Colle, with Bernd Springler, commercial director Europe of GE-SPE, as Vice President.
As well as its promotional role, the EAMPS aims to coordinate the information and specifications required by specific application sectors such as building and construction and to promote compliance with environmental, safety and health regulations.
Price increases for PU, epoxies and additives September 11, 2002
Following its recent price increase for TDI, flexible polyols and copolymer polyols Dow Chemical is to increase its prices for MDI and rigid polyols in Europe on October 1. The company is aiming for a Eur 150/tonne increase for polymeric methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), a Eur 200/tonne increase for monomeric MDI and a Eur 100/tonne increase for rigid polyols.
The company's Epoxy Products and Intermediates business increased the price of epichlorohydrin by a minimum of Eur 100/tonne on September 1. The last increase was in July.
Rohm and Haas is increasing the price of its Paraloid acrylic impact modifiers and processing aids by 5 per cent on October 1. This follows a similar increase on its Paraloid range of MBS modifiers early in the third quarter.
Development agreement for mPE September 11, 2002
BP and Nova Chemicals Corporation have joined in the development of metallocene catalysed polyethylenes. They have signed an agreement under which BP will license its Innovene metallocene technology portfolio to Nova for use in polyethylene manufacturing and Nova has granted BP the rights to use and sub-license its proprietary single-site catalysts. The cooperation extends to the development of metallocene and single-site catalyst technology for gas-phase polyethylene
production.
Both companies will use the metallocene and other single-site catalysts arising from this cooperation for polyethylene manufacturing, and will also be able to license them to third parties.
BP and Nova already have an agreement to develop and commercialize Nova's Novacat T advanced Ziegler-Natta catalyst. Innovene technology is currently used by 24 licensees in 16 countries to produce more than 4·5 million tonnes of polyethylene per year.
Cyclic PBTs to be made in Europe September 11, 2002
Cyclics Corporation of the USA is to invest Eur 20 million in a European plant to make its CBT (cyclic butadiene terephthalate) low viscosity, low moulding pressure engineering plastics. Cyclics Europe will build the 2,500 tonnes plant at BASF's Schwarzheide plant in Germany, where it will draw on BASF's PBT as feedstock. It is expected to begin production by early 2004.
Distrupol has been appointed sole UK and Ireland distributor for DuPont packaging and industrial polymers - Elvax ethylene vinyl acetate, Surlyn ionomer, Fusabond polymer modifiers and Elvaloy AC acrylate copolymers.
Rapra Technology has opened an office in Galway, Ireland to meet increased demand for its testing and analytical services from Irish-based healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. The office will be staffed by George Coghlan, whose working life has been spent in the medical device and healthcare industries.
The new office reflects the growing tendency for Irish healthcare companies to outsource technical services to concentrate in-house on their core businesses. Rapra Ireland will provide all aspects of materials and process support, failure diagnosis and regulatory advice.
Brenntag advances in Eastern Europe September 11, 2002
Chemicals distributor Brenntag has added another Central and Eastern European base by acquiring the largest chemicals logistics company in Bulgaria, Manti Co of Sofia. Brenntag is now represented in 10 Eastern European countries.
Brenntag is part of the Logistics-Group Stinnes based in Germany. It has sales of Eur 4·6 billion euros, achieved by 8,300 employees throughout the world in about 300 locations.
New director for GTMA September 11, 2002
The Gauge and Toolmakers Association has appointed Julia Moore as director of the association. She has been executive manager for the past three years.
Celanese backs fuel cells with a pilot plant September 11, 2002
Celanese has underlined its commitment to the development of fuel cells by opening a pilot plant to produce membrane electrode assemblies at the Frankfurt-Höchst industrial park in Germany.
The MEA is the heart of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell and is where hydrogen and oxygen react to generate electricity and heat. Celanese has developed a high temperature MEA that it says has advantages over low temperature systems. Operating at temperatures of up to 200 degC, the fuel cell is more resistant to carbon monoxide impurities in the hydrogen, and water and heat management is simpler and more cost-effective.
The MEA consists of a membrane, catalysts and gas diffusion layers. The Celanese membrane Celtec is made of the temperature resistant polymer polybenzimidazole (PBI), produced solely by Celanese.
Foam block machine adds flexibility September 11, 2002
Cannon Viking has added new technology for foaming round and rectangular PU blocks with the option to foam under negative or positive pressure. It is to distribute the single block foam production machine developed by the Spanish Flex Group (Copo Iberica) for its own internal production. A few of these plants are also in operation in markets outside Spain.
The machine, dubbed Uniblock by Cannon, is said to be particularly suitable for small/medium production where formulation changes from shot to shot. The ability to make large blocks greatly improves the cost effectiveness of the unit.
Uniblock can make up to 6,000 tonnes/year of foam blocks up to 5 × 2·2 × 1·4 m high. Foam density can vary from 14 to 60 kg/m³ by vacuum or pressure, without auxiliary blowing agents.
Acquisitive rubber moulding group Icon Polymers has bought the Brake Chamber Diaphragm business of Contitech VC in Germany, and expects to see sales increase by more than £1 million as a result. In the past two years Icon has bought Northern Rubber and William Warne in order to build what it sees as the critical mass necessary for the company to develop.
Icon is already in the brake chamber diaphragm business, and says the acquisition of the Contitech division - which will be integrated with existing facilities at Retford in Nottinghamshire - makes it number one in Europe and number two in the world.
BASF sells off low volume engineering plastic September 2, 2002
BASF has sold its Luranyl PPE/HIPS alloy business in Europe and Asia to Romira, the engineering plastics business of the Rowa group. Romira has annual capacity for around 20,000 tonnes of polymers, which are mainly copolymers and blends incorporating polystyrene - the company makes ABS, ASA, SAN and AES (acrylonitrile, ethylene, propylene, styrene terpolymer). BASF has produced about 5,000 tonnes of Luranyl annually in Germany and Korea.
The sale of the Luranyl business continues BASF's strategy of concentrating on larger volumes, particularly where their production is integrated with other group products - BASF's Verbund policy. The company will use the freed capacity for other polymers.
Luranyl exhibits high heat resistance over a wide range of temperatures and incorporates a halogen-free flame retardant. It is used widely for electrical and electronic applications such as battery chargers, transformers, electrical sockets and switches.
Two new sources of nylon compounds have been established in the UK.
Spanish compounder Grupo Repol has appointed Harvest Polymers to distribute its Dinalon and Ecoamid nylon compounds in the UK and Ireland. Harvest Polymers specialises in TPE distribution, but also has a portfolio of engineering plastics and specialist additives.
The Dinalon range is based on PA6 and PA66 blends for engineering use, while the Ecoamid grades are lower cost materials for less exacting specifications.
Honeywell has appointed Pan Polymers to distribute its former AlliedSignal Capron nylon 6 and 66 materials in Britain. Capron is produced in injection moulding and extrusion grades unfilled, or with mineral or glass reinforcements and other modifications such as impact resistance.
German company to specialise in injection blow machines September 2, 2002
German special purpose machine builder Novapax is giving up bespoke machinery manufacture to concentrate on building injection blow moulding machines. The company says it has taken this decision after positive response from the market following last year's K exhibition, and the significant worlwide growth in demand for these machines since then.
Two 'unnamed shareholders' have recently invested in Novapax. One has many years' experience in supplying the IBM market and the other has taken up the position of finance director.
Novapax has developed a 32 tonne machine for series production. The NSB 320 can process PET, PP, HDPE, LDPE, PC, PS and PA without modification. It has four rather than three stations because Novapax says that the additional conditioning station gives more versatile and stable processing conditions.
Novapax has also set up collaborations with European and North American mould makers and plans to open sales and service centres in North America and Asia.
DuPont Dow and PolyOne join forces in TPEs September 2, 2002
DuPont Dow Elastomers and PolyOne Corporation are to join in the development of new thermoplastic elastomers based on DuPont Dow's Engage polyolefin elastomers. PolyOne will manufacture and market them under the Elastamax product line as a new series called EG 9000. They will be available in extrusion and moulding grades in Shore A hardness ranges from 65 to 90.
The agreement gives DuPont Dow access to a broader range of markets and applications through PolyOne's compounding and processing expertise while PolyOne gets to use DuPont Dow's patent-pending product and processing technology.
DuPont Engineering Polymers will be increasing the prices of several materials from September 16. Crastin PBT goes up Eur 80/tonne; Rynite PET by Eur 120/tonne; Delrin acetal by Eur 200/tonne; Minlon mineral reinforced materials by Eur 200/tonne and Zytel nylon 6 and 66 by Eur 200/tonne. Some increases will be higher depending on volumes.
Dow Europe has increased the cost of its Styron polystyrenes by Eur 75/tonne for all monthly business.
Expandable polystyrene from Nova Chemicals has gone up by Eur 120/tonne.
Metals move September 2, 2002
Chiltern Metals, which supplies tooling materials, moved today to: 6 Fingle Drive, Stonebridge, Milton Keynes MK13 0AT. Telephone 01908 224240, fax 019208 224241.
Roto capacity increase September 2, 2002
Road safety product moulder Europalite of Mansfield is expanding its rotational moulding capacity with the purchase of a custom-built three-station machine, and an Italian-built machine which will be dedicated to moulding grit bins.
The custom-built machine, costing £250,000, has simultaneous loading/unloading, heating and cooling. It represents a threefold capacity increase over the company's existing roto machine. With the increase in moulding capacity, Europalite is planning to move to bigger premises.
Get the best out of your plasticizing unit September 2, 2002
Improve the performance of your plasticizing unit and you improve the profitability of your company. That's the message from US screw and barrel specialist Spirex which has developed the Process Optimizer to guide moulders through a review of their plasticizing systems - the company frowns on thinking of screws, barrels, valves and other components in the plastizing unit as individual components.
To justify its claims Spirex cites an automotive parts moulder which went through an optimization review and replaced its existing screw and valve with a Spirex Z-Mixer Screw. Cycle time dropped 15 per cent, scrap dropped from 7 per cent to 1 per cent, profit margin increased from 15 to 30 per cent and the difference in cost for the replacement components was paid for in seven days.
Process Optimization is described on the company's web site where moulders can fill in a form to begin their own optimization process.
Solvay sells US fluoropolymers business September 2, 2002
The requirement of the US and European regulatory authorities for Solvay to dispose of its US fluoropolymers business following its purchase of Ausimont has been met with the sale of Solvay Fluoropolymers Inc to 3M subsidiary Dyneon. Dyneon is Solvay's partner in Alventia, a producer of VF2, which is a precursor of PVDF. The sale should be complete by the end of this year.
Birkby's adds in-mould textiles to its technology list September 2, 2002
Birkby's Plastics is gearing up to start in earnest producing in-mould fabric-covered injection moulded components. Over recent months it has spent £2 million on three new Krauss-Maffei machines fitted out with K-M's Decoform fabric back-moulding process, in which a pre-cut blank of fabric is placed in the mould and the component injection-compression moulded against it. Birkby's has won an order for a project to mould car seat backs with a PVC covering, and in October will add the process to its moulding facilities as In-mould Textiles Technology.
Rexam sells Danish blow moulders September 2, 2002
Rexam has continued the steady realignment of its packaging businesses with the sale of two small blow moulding companies in Denmark. Rexam Holmia in Kolding and Rexam Closures & Containers in Langeskov have been bought by Polimoon Holding of Denmark for £7·2 million.
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