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GE focuses on extreme duty, and adds a thermosetting PPO June 27, 2003
GE Plastics has introduced its first engineering thermoset as part of a raft of new higher performance materials branded X Gen resin.
Noryl ETX is based on polyphenylene oxide, cross linked with styrene monomer. Varying the PPO content enables the properties to be tuned. The material will be produced in bulk moulding compound form in the USA and Europe by Bulk Molding Compounds and distributed by GE.
Noryl ETX is said to offer enhanced toughness and ductility, strength and modulus at high temperature, high heat resistance, low moisture uptake, low shrinkage, high dielectric strength and inherent flame resistance, improving on the performance of existing thermosets such as unsaturated polyesters or epoxy vinyl esters. Initial applications are expected in automotive under bonnet and electrical power distribution applications and GE Plastics and BMCI have been working during the past year on formulations for engine valve covers and electrical insulation components for transformers.
Other materials in the X Gen resin series bring both higher performance levels in existing applications, and new application potential.
Lexan SLX copolymer was produced initially as a weathering-resistant polycarbonate surfacing film for 'no paint' external automotive panels, and GE has now introduced an injection mouldable grade. SLX 2431 offers light transmission better than 83 per cent and less than 1 per cent haze, has enhanced weatherability and five to ten times the gloss retention of most standard UV stabilized polycarbonate materials. Initial focus is on the lighting industry for applications including covers, refractors, and lenses.
Standard polycarbonate has the heat and impact resistance desirable for lighting applications, but it has a tendency to yellow after long-term UV exposure. The SLX copolymer builds weatherability into the backbone of the product. There are plans to introduce additional injection moulding grades in translucent colours in the autumn.
Another polycarbonate in the X Gen series is the recently introduced Lexan EXL, which takes PC's impact resistance down to -60 degC.
Geloy XTW acrylic styrene acrylonitrile has also been added to the X Gen range for its weather resistance, and GE says it can give three to five times the colour and gloss retention of standard ASAs.
The new XHT grade of GE's Ultem polyetherimide has taken the material's heat resistance up a further 30 degC to 247 degC and is described by GE as 'the highest heat, injection mouldable amorphous resin available today'. Overall the material combines high chemical resistance, inherent flame retardancy and transparency with exceptional dimensional stability and high heat resistance for use in applications 'dominated by traditional materials, such as glass, metal and thermoset resins - areas once unimaginable for thermoplastics'.
Potential applications include: automotive headlight/fog light reflectors, and bulb sockets; food and airline catering containers that can be moved from the chiller to convection and/or microwave ovens; flexible printed circuits, withstanding soldering temperatures; and moulded electrical interconnect devices in applications such as electrical control units, computer components, mobile phone internal antennae and semiconductor chip trays.
Other materials now incorporated in the X Gen series are Xylex SCC polycarbonate/aliphatic polyester blends which combine high transparency with extreme chemical and impact resistance in a high flow material suitable for medical, electronics, sporting goods and food service applications; and Noryl PPX, with dimensional stability at temperature extremes and a wide stiffness range for automotive applications, particularly in conjunction with thermoplastic polyolefins.
Injection machine makers put tooling in a spin June 27, 2003
Vertically pivoted rotating tools have been shown to improve productivity in multi-component moulding, but now HPM of the USA (now part of Taylor's Industrial Service) has gone a step further and rotates the whole moving platen.
Its 360 - 5,000 US ton Freedom series two-platen machines continue the principle, dating back to the early 1980s East German KuASY machines, of enabling the moving platen to run right off the tie bars for greater access on mould opening. HPM has capitalised on the detachment of the platen by mounting it on a turntable. The company is promoting the machine for insert moulding - with the platen rotated there is masses of access to the mould half - and says this shortens insert moulding cycle times by 30 - 35 per cent. Krauss-Maffei has also unveiled a pivoting platen option for its two-plate machines, although in this case it uses an additional platen mounted on a sliding table between the standard fixed and moving platens. This sliding table is mounted on linear guides and is moved by hydraulic cylinders. With the pivoting cavity plate in place on the rotating platen, the layout is similar to that used by Gram and Foboha.
This Revolution machine is intended for two-component moulding, and K-M has installed the second injection unit on the moving platen, injecting through it. The design gives advantages all round over other two-component layouts in that all the injection and clamping forces are in the same axis, restoring symmetry to jobs in which the two injection shots are of very different sizes. And although the second injection unit adds to the machine's overall length, The Revolution does not occupy as much floor space as an L-shaped machine.
Other benefits claimed by K-M are that both injection and compression moulding can be carried out on the same machine, and that there is greater access for automation and provision of increased, or differential cooling.
The Revolution option is available across the whole of the company's machine range.
Increased scope and capacity for polyolefin elastomers June 25, 2003
New polyolefin elastomers being introduced by ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical increase the scope of these materials across a range of industrial applications.
Vistamaxx speciality elastomers developed by ExxonMobil using its Exxpol metallocene catalyst technology and proprietary reactor processes are said to improve elasticity, softness, adhesion, strength and durability of compound formulations. The Vistamaxx products are highly crystalline and based mainly on propylene. They are being evaluated by the company's customers in a variety of applications, and commercial quantities in the form of free-flowing pellets are expected to be available in the first half of 2004.
According to ExxonMobil, the potential for metallocene catalysts to produce novel olefin products has been a topic of discussion in the chemical business for years, although products based on these concepts have been slow to materialize since the company introduced its first plastomers more than 10 years ago. The Vistamaxx products 'have unique properties and attributes beyond what is possible with plastomers' which will enable customers to 'add value to their products and advance their technologies in ways not possible prior to the introduction of Vistamaxx'.
ExxonMobil has already patented a range of Vistamaxx compositions and compound formulations as well as processes and major applications.
Vistamaxx will be made for worldwide distribution at a newly built production facility in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
DuPont Dow's new polyolefin elastomer plant at Plaquemine in the USA has gone on line, with a capacity of 135,000 tonnes of Engage POE. With the new plant come six new grades which will go on stream in the second half of this year. They will be predominantly ethylene butene based, complementing the existing ethylene octene materials and are targeted at automotive TPO and interiors, wire and cable and consumer goods applications. The new grades have been available in developmental quantities since 2002.
Dupont Dow's capacity for Engage is now at 220,000 tonnes.
New sources for in-house ABS colouring June 25, 2003
Help for moulders needing to colour ABS in-house has come from two sources in Germany. BASF has joined a consortium of masterbatch producers in the Colorflexx service, while Atlantic Polymers has linked with Toray of Japan in a similar operation it describes as a 'batch & resin' process.
Colorflexx is a service package for Europe developed by BASF with Albis, Clariant, Schulman and Ultrapolymers. BASF supplies standard ABS uncoloured, while the others supply the colour concentrates. The package is supported with technical back-up.
As well as the technical aspects, Colorflexx is pitched as a fast turn round operation. The ABS and masterbatch will be delivered within 10 working days - previously customers may have had to wait up to eight weeks or more for delivery of coloured ABS - and assistance will be provided within 24 hours in the event of colour or processing problems. BASF, as owner of the Colorflexx name, will take responsibility for the whole process of switching to self colouring.
Colorflexx is described as 'a triple-win situation'. Moulders get a worldwide source of consistent-quality ABS along with the ability to change product colour quickly, giving flexibility, lower system costs and improved logistics and storage; by concentrating on supplying uncoloured Terluran, BASF is able to operate its world-scale plants more cost-effectively with a smaller, optimized range of bulk products; and the masterbatch suppliers get more business opportunities by creating a broader customer base in Europe for their expertise in colour matching, colorimetry, metering and mixing equipment.
The Atlantic Polymers/Toray tie-up is a package of Toyolac ABS with a uniform light base colour, and Merbatch colour masterbatch which has been developed specifically for Toyolac. This promises similar benefits to those of Colormaxx - lower costs from not buying pre-coloured ABS, simpler inventory management and fast response to customers' colour requests. The two companies also promise fast delivery
Linpac sold June 25, 2003
After weeks of speculation packaging giant Linpac has confirmed that it is to be sold. The company stone-walled press speculation in April that its chairman Michael Cornish was trying to find a buyer. Now it has agreed to sell to private equity group Montagu Private Equity for £860 million.
According to managing director David Williams there were around 12 private equity companies in the frame and a key factor in the final discussions was the latitute for the company to continue to grow. According to the Financial Times Montagu was not the highest bidder: a US private equity company had already offered more than £900 million.
The deal sees the current shareholders receiving around £700 million: the company is to be recapitalised and Mr Cornish and other shareholders are to reinvest between £95 m and £130 m. There will also be an opportunity for employees to invest in the company, possibly owning up to 40 per cent alongside the management and existing shareholders.
Under the new ownership David Williams is to become executive chairman and Mr Cornish a non-executive director.
Engel takes over Corpoplast preform system business June 25, 2003
Engel is taking over the Premax PET bottle preform business from SIG Corpoplast. It has supplied SIG - and previously Krupp - Corpoplast with the injection moulding systems incorporated in Premax for several years. Last year it introduced its own brand of PET preform systems. Now the two ranges are to be integrated under the Engel MacPET name.
SIG's PET mould making specialist Moldtec will be one of two preferred suppliers of tooling for the system, the other being MHT Mold & Hotrunner Technology.
The machine system consists of toggle clamping injection machines from the Engel Classic series, sized between 250 and 500 tonnes to run moulds of 32, 48, 64, 72 or 96 cavities, with integrated linear robots and four-cycle cooling buffers.
Engel has delivered more than 100 Premax systems to 20 countries, and under the new agreement takes over service and support of these machines.
Milacron aims for worldwide integration June 25, 2003
Milacron is taking a more global approach to the development of its injection and blow moulding machinery. It has appointed Dr Karlheinz Bourdon, at one time head of Ferromatik Milacron in Germany, as vice president, global injection moulding based in the USA. His role will be to consolidate Milacron's worldwide injection moulding operations 'by leveraging the collective strengths of Ferromatik Europe and Ferromatik North America in terms of machine design, processing expertise, control technology and manufacturing excellence'.
At Uniloy Milacron Jim Moore has been named vice president, global blow moulding, adding Uniloy Italy to his overall responsibility for Uniloy North America. As the first step towards the eventual creation of a global blow moulding business he will integrate the product development and marketing at the US and Italian companies.
The European Commission has approved the proposed takeover of Luxembourg-based Vantico Group (best known for its rapid tooling resins and Araldite adhesives) by Huntsman of the USA. The deal, announced earlier this year, involves the US investment company MatlinPatterson exchanging debt for equity in Vantico, thereby becoming its principal shareholder. MatlinPatterson is joint owner (with John Huntsman) of Huntsman Holdings, and will pass control of Vantico to Huntsman.
The EC was interested in the possibility of Vantico improving its position in liquid formulations for tooling by having access to Huntsman's diamine-based epoxy curing agents, but has concluded that the companies' relative shares in the downstream and upstream markets were unlikely to create a dominant position in tooling.
Solvay in Russian PVC compounds JV June 25, 2003
Solvay has entered a 50:50 joint venture in Russia to produce PVC compounds for regional consumption. Its partner is Nikos, a Russian industrial group, which operates an integrated VCM/PVC unit at Volgograd. The joint venture, to be called Soligran, will operate there, and at another site at Tver, north of Moscow. Soligran is intended to start operating this autumn and will use technology from Solvay to make 40,000 tonnes of PVC compound annually within two years.
EPS cup beats vending machine challenges June 25, 2003
Problems with the use of thin-walled EPS cups in automatic vending machines are said to be overcome by using Nova Chemicals' Dylite material. This has been adopted by Autobar Disposables' Veriplast International division in the UK to make a new cup that will be produced in volumes of around 30 million a year for use worldwide.
The new Smart Cup is said to overcome the space efficiency and static electricity challenges that previously excluded EPS cup usage in vending.
Wavin expands in Finland with septic tank purchase June 25, 2003
Wavin, one of Europe's biggest manufacturers of plastics pipe systems, has bought Finnish septic tank producer Labko and is to incorporate it in its Nordisk Wavin Scandinavian operating company. Labko has a tank monitoring technology known as LabkoNet which enables the free volume of a septic tank to be monitored over the internet by its owner, and by the sewage company, to facilitate emptying. Wavin sees this as opening new opportunities in the waste water market. The acquisition also gives Wavin an improved presence in the Finnish civil engineering market.
Lucite plans to sell more than Perspex June 25, 2003
Perspex manufacturer Lucite International - which was born out of Ineos Acrylics, itself formed from the ICI Perspex business in 1999 - is broadening its scope in plastics distribution. It is setting up Perspex Distribution which, as well as selling Perspex cast and extruded sheet, will also have a range of PVC, PETG, polycarbonate and other plastics products.
The company will start trading during this summer from a site in the south east of England - Lucite International is based in Southampton - and plans to open regional centres within six months. Managing director is Keith Piggott.
Joint operation in single-layer PET barrier bottles June 25, 2003
BP and ColorMatrix Corporation have joined forces in the sale of a barrier material for PET bottles. Amosorb is an oxygen-scavenging barrier concentrate that enhances the oxygen barrier properties of PET, enabling barrier bottles to be moulded in a single layer form, and without compromising the recyclability of the bottle.
ColorMatrix is a specialist in colorant and additive masterbatches for PET, and over the next few months will take over the manufacturing, marketing, sales and support of Amosorb for non-alcoholic beverage bottles, and the two companies will work together to develop alcoholic beverage applications.
The deadline is approaching for entries to the Worshipful Company of Horners' Bottlemaking Award, which is sponsored in part by this magazine. The award will be won by a plastic bottle, jar or hollow container - not necessarily blow moulded - which is 'innovative, of pleasing or practical design, and with a likely or proven commercial application or potential, which has been developed, manufactured or sold in the UK.
Entry forms from Sandy Weaver at the Polymer Machinery Manufacturers and Distributors Association, to be returned by July 31.
Bourne to quit toolmaking for moulding June 25, 2003
The Bourne Group of Walsall is to shut its toolmaking business Bourne Tools and to transfer some of the staff and activities to Bourne Technical Mouldings.
Founder Mike Bourne will be retiring while maintaining a consultancy role in the business, run by his two sons, Mark and Ian - Mark as managing direct of Bourne Technical Mouldings and Ian as commercial director.
Italian machinery business 'disappointing' in 2002 June 25, 2003
Italian plastics and rubber machinery association Assocomaplast describes as 'disappointing' the sales of plastics and rubber processing machinery by its members in 2002. Output was down around 4 per cent compared with 2001, but against the background of general economic slow down Assocomaplast says the result could have been worse. For this year the good trade figures recorded in mid-May were encouraging with domestic demand and that from the main export markets apparently on the rise. In particular, says Assocomaplast, following months of enforced suspension due to the SARS epidemic, the Chinese market (third in the table of Italian exports) is now resuming orders.
Extrusion and recycling equipment agent KweenB is moving on June 30 to 29 Dalkeith Road, Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands B73 6PW. The telephone number will be 0121 355 2662, fax 0121 355 8566.
Rexam buys pharmaceutical packaging company June 5, 2003
Rexam is to buy Risdon Pharma Development, the Paris-based pharmaceutical packaging company which was the subject of a management buy-out from Crown Cork & Seal early last year for Eur 97 million. Rexam is paying Eur 125 million.
Risdon Pharma makes products such as eye droppers and nasal sprays, and other medical devices including multidose dry powder inhalers for dispensing asthma drugs. The company has approximately 300 employees at factories in Offranville, France, and Neuenburg, Germany. Over the past three years sales have grown at a compound annual rate of 15 per cent and in 2002 it turned over Eur 51 million.
Rexam will add Risdon to its Beauty & Closures division and sees synergies with its existing pharmaceutical packaging operations in closures and dispensing systems.
Resin Express has been appointed exclusive distributor for two elastomers from July 1.
It has become agent for Santoprene, the thermoplastic vulcanisate made by Advanced Elastomer Systems, and for DSM's Keltan EPDM.
Vita buys Belgian polyolefin sheet business June 4, 2003
British Vita has bought the production assets and customer base of Crown General's sheet extrusion division, based near Antwerp in Belgium, for an undisclosed sum.
The assets comprise two extrusion lines which are to be relocated to two existing Vita sheet plants, one in Britain and one in Germany, and will provide additional capacity and customers for Vita's polyethylene and polypropylene sheet businesses. No other assets or any staff are involved.
The business has a turnover of around £1·5 million, mainly in the horticultural and materials handling fields.
Hydro Polymers buys high flow PVC business and plans new recycling operation June 3, 2003
PolyOne has sold its Vinakon high flow PVC compounds business to Hydro Polymers - which already makes the materials at its Newton Aycliffe site.
Vinakon dates back to 1991 when Geon and Hydro Polymers formed a joint venture to make high flow compounds. In 2000 Geon merged with M A Hanna to form PolyOne, which bought out Hydro's 50 per cent share, with Hydro retaining a long term contract to make the compounds for PolyOne at Newton Aycliffe. Now PolyOne has determined that this is not a core business in Europe, and has sold it to Hydro. Sales of Vinakon in 2002 were around £2 million.
It will be run as a separate sector within Hydro Polymers' PVC compounding site at Newton Aycliffe which, with an output of 370,000 tonnes a year, is the biggest single site PVC compounding operation in Europe. The company is currently spending some £2 million to expand capacity with the installation of a new high throughput compounder during this summer. The line that it replaces is to be reinstalled elsewhere at Newton Aycliffe and become the basis for a new recycled PVC business which is expected to go commercial later this year.
Hydro has already trialled its new Ecovin recycled material and is in the process of firming up supplies of feedstock.
Amcor buys Alcoa's PET packaging business June 3, 2003
The world's biggest PET bottle business just got bigger. Amcor PET Packaging - which bought the Schmalbach Lubeca PET packaging business last year - has bought Alcoa's South American PET packaging business which has nine plants in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Chile making around 1·27 billion preforms and 425 million blown bottles a year.
Alcoa had announced plans to divest non-core businesses earlier this year, and the sale takes it out of PET packaging, although not out of South America, where it has other packaging operations.
Amcor is paying $75 million for the business, which has annual sales of around $130 million. It expects to cut operating costs by around $5 million a year in three years through plant closures and other synergies with its existing 13 South American plants. When this acquisition closes in the third quarter this year Amcor's annual sales in PET bottles will have reached the Eur 2 billion mark.
BP continues reconstructive surgery at Grangemouth June 3, 2003
More jobs are to be lost at the Grangemouth petrochemicals site as BP continues its long term quest for efficiency. The company says that in the past 18 months it has made a 'huge step up' in plant reliability and improved its safety performance threefold. But despite having done 'much of the groundwork to make the site competitive with our European rivals' the current tough economic climate means further cost cutting is necessary.
The new job cuts are 190 mainly middle management and clerical posts, which will be phased out between the second half of this year and the end of June 2004. According to site director Colin Maclean: 'We are preserving more than 1,400 high quality jobs at BP Grangemouth. The final number of job losses falls well within the original context of up to 1,000 jobs indicated back in November 2001. In November 2001 the company said it planned to cut 1,000 of the site's 1,500 jobs.
BASF takes bigger stake in Japanese BDO June 3, 2003
BASF is to take a bigger stake in its 50:50 Japanese BDO joint venture with Idemitsu. From July 1 its shareholding will rise to 67 per cent, and the company will change its name from Idemitsu BASF Co to BASF Idemitsu Co. It will also become the sole BASF and BASF Idemitsu outlet for BDO in Japan, sourcing demand in excess of its capacity from other BASF sites in Asia, Europe and America.
BASF Idemitsu operates a 25,000 tonnes BDO plant at one of Japan's largest chemical sites, in Chiba. BASF has a global capacity of 575,000 tonnes of BDO.
Spaceminster has a new managing director following the departure of Philip Staniford in January. Bob Wilson is returning to the company after 11 years running his own operation at Hi-Class Machinery, and for a time, Labotek UK. When he was at Spaceminster previously he was sales director and then managing director of Boy UK.
Initially he will be involved primarily in sales of Boy and Biraghi injection moulding machines.
Mr Wilson will retain an interest Hi-Class Machinery, which is a rebuilder of Boy machines, and which will continue its refurbishment operations under the existing management, led by Paul Deller.
Hi-Class is also agent for ancillary equipment from Boetherm, PRM, Dega and Fratelli Virginio, and injection moulding machines built by NPM. It will continue in this role but with a lower profile, supporting existing customers rather than competing with Spaceminster for sales.
Tampoprint UK director Brian Stinton has retired after 30 years selling the German-made pad printers. He has sold his share in the company to his co-director Marie Vine.
Mr Stinton became involved with Tampoprint when he sold the machines for its former agent Ritter Plastics in the 1970s, and set up the UK distributor in 1978.
He continues as president of the Polymer Machinery Manufacturers and Distributors Association.
BASF sells Ronfalin to Perrite and shuts down production June 2, 2003
Vita Thermoplastic Compounds' JGP Perrite compounding business has bought the Ronfalin ABS compounds brand from BASF, and BASF has closed down the Geleen, Holland production facilities for Ronfalin compounds and ABS polymer.
Ronfalin was originally a DSM brand, and was bought by BASF in 1998 when it failed to come up to DSM's financial performance targets. Perrite - coincidentally itself a former DSM company - took on a licence to manufacture Ronfalin compounds in 2001 while BASF continued to make both compounds and polymer.
The sale by BASF is part of the company's strategy of focusing on larger volume standard ABS products, for which it is currently building a new plant in Antwerp, Belgium. Perrite intends to continue making the full slate of Ronfalin speciality grades and anticipates, wherever possible, using BASF ABS as the base polymer.
Perrite makes Ronfalin at its Warrington site, and plans to expand sales into the Asian market through its new compounding plant in Malaysia.
Modular Automation bought out of receivership June 2, 2003
Modular Automation, the robotic product handling specialist that went into receivership in April this year, has been resurrected as Modular Automation International. The company is operating from the same premises in Birmingham, is retaining the technical staff and middle management of the former Modular Automation, and will complete the work in progress at the time of the receivership.
Trevor Dixon, who was with the company for 18 years as its technical director until recently, has returned, and is joined by managing director Adam Petit, who comes to the company after six years as managing director of Brandauer in Birmingham.
More Chinese rubber mixing business for Chronos Richardson June 2, 2003
Chronos Richardson's Batching Systems Group has sold more rubber mixing equipment to Chinese tyre producer Cheng Shin. The company secured its third order, for more than £1 million last year.
The latest order is in three parts, the biggest of which is again for £1 million, and is for Cheng Shin's new Maxxis International mixing,facility in Rayon, Thailand. The equipment, scheduled for delivery in October this year, will be used to produce passenger radial car tyres and includes: carbon black and white fillers, oils and polymer weighing and feeding systems for use on four mixing lines for masterbatch production and one fully-automatic small chemical preparation system for use on multiple mixing lines. Overall plant control will be provided by the servo PC-based CR 3000 process control system.
Also due for October 2003 delivery are masterbatch and final mix compounding lines for the Cheng Shin-Toyo Tire & Rubber [China] Company factory at Kunshan City, in Jiangsu Province, China. These mixer feeding systems and the servo PC based CR 3000 process control system will be integrated with previously supplied Chronos Richardson mixing lines.
The third part of the latest order is for two mixing lines to be supplied to Cheng Shin's factory at Yuanlin, Taiwan. These will comprise carbon black and white fillers weighing and feeding systems, oils and polymer weighing and feeding and small chemical preparation.
Chronos Richardson became a business unit of Premier Tech of Canada when it was sold by Babcock International at the end of last year.
Green light for Matrix Plastics' Thai plant June 2, 2003
Matrix Plastics has been given the go-ahead by Thailand's Board of Investment to build its colour compound and masterbatch plant in Rayong Province, in the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate, near the main shipping port of Laem Chabang. Production at the new plant is expected to begin in January next year.
Degussa yields to rising silica production costs June 2, 2003
Degussa has held out against rising raw materials and energy costs in its production of performance silicas since 2000, but says it can no longer absorb these costs, and so is increasing prices worldwide by 7·5 per cent from this month.
Sheet distributor Plastics Plus has appointed three new directors: Richard White becomes director and general manager of the Nottingham branch; Dave Cox is director and general manager of the Wolverhampton branch; and Tim John has become production director.
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