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More production plants planned by Husky October 26, 2004
Husky is planning to move production of its small injection moulding machines up to 160 tonnes from Canada to China. It is currently building a plant in a solo operation - no Chinese partner - which should start producing machines in the first half of next year. The plant is intended to test the Chinese market, but its output will be sold worldwide
The move, which the company says would have little affect on its Bolton plant in Canada because of the relatively low volumes in which it builds small machines, is part of a wider rationalisation planned for Husky's machine production due to the cost of shipping large machines and components around the world - a big moulding machine can cost around $50,000 to ship from Europe to North America.
At present machines up to 750 tonnes are built in Canada, and bigger machines are built in Luxembourg. At some time a plant will be built in North America to build machines from 500 - 2,000 tonnes, and it is likely that a further, similar plant will be built in China
Chinese compounding plant for Rhodia October 26, 2004
French nylon specialist Rhodia Polyamide is to build an engineering plastics compounding plant at its Shanghai, China, plant. It will be built in stages with the first due to come on-line in November 2005. When the plant is complete it will produce 40,000 tonnes/year of compounds based on Technyl PA6, 66 and 6/66, Technyl Star, Technyl Alloy and other engineering thermoplastics.
Trexel safeguards MuCell/Optifoam clash and offers improved surface finish October 26, 2004
In another move to ease the adoption of microcellular foam technology in injection moulding and extrusion, Trexel is to grant a special MuCell license to users of Sulzer's Optifoam technology. A similar stance was taken three years ago to protect users of Demag Plastic Group's Ergocell process.
Optifoam and MuCell use different approaches but both increase the strength and reduce the stress in parts by introducing small amounts of a supercritical gas into the melt. According to Trexel 'the market will grow faster if there is more than one credible source for microcellular foaming technology. If we can reduce uncertainty by providing a simple, straightforward license and price structure for the Optifoam customers who want to produce microcellular parts then it should be a win-win for all parties involved.'
The license will be at a standard price tied directly to each of the three standard nozzle sizes that Sulzer is offering. It will require a one time payment and will be discounted from Trexel standard license fees to account for the fact that know how and support will be provided by Sulzer. Trexel has also entered an agreement with Ono Sangyo of Japan to improve the surface finish of MuCell parts. Ono Sangyo's Rapid Heat Cycle Molding (RHCM) process is to be combined with MuCell to produce a gloss surface. The RHCM process alone, which combines high mould temperatures and rapid cooling to produce a very high surface gloss without weld lines, is susceptible to the surface blemishes caused by sink marks, while MuCell eliminates sink marks but has a dull finish.
Trials by Ono Sangyo combining MuCell with RHCM by fitting a MuCell Modular Upgrade on its 350 tonne Meiki machine produced 'excellent' results, particularly on products made of ABS, ABS/glass fibre, PC, PC/glass fibre, and mineral-filled polypropylene. Parts have been produced which have high gloss, lower weights, no sink marks and improved dimensional stability.
The target applications include products like TV frames, LCD frames, and computer and printer cases, which need to be warp-free and free of sink marks. Some of these are painted today and the MuCell Gloss Process makes it possible for customers to replace painting with a less expensive process.
Other applications would be in parts which need better dimensional stability, but which must have very smooth surfaces because of concerns about particulate contamination, such as wafer carriers and disk drive components. In the automotive industry, target applications generally include parts that require a Class A finish or are moulded in colour, like exterior mirror shells and housings, centre consoles, door panels, light bezels, light housings, door handles, and bumper fascias. The process will offer alternatives on plated parts such as door handles, wheel trims, and headlight reflectors.
In order to use the combined technologies a moulder will need to install the standard Trexel equipment package (SCF System and Modular Upgrade) as well as a RHCM controller. A license will be available that covers the use of both technologies.
Cinpres takes over Alliance technologies October 26, 2004
Cinpres Gas Injection has extended a co-operation agreement forged earlier in the year with its American competitor Alliance Gas Systems, further integrating the operations of the two companies.
In the early summer the two companies agreed to cross licence the US patents and patent applications covering Alliance's Backspill and Cinpres' PEP - Plastic Expulsion Processes - with sub-licensing rights for both companies.
Now Cinpres has acquired the exclusive rights to all Alliance's patented technologies, with Alliance no longer selling its fluid assisted systems and accessories. Instead Alliance will operate a development centre for gas and water assisted products and tooling to be called Fluid Assisted Molding & Engineering (FAME) and highlighting Cinpres' machinery and proprietary products currently under development.
Trade association for sheet co-extruders October 26, 2004
An association of ABS/PMMA sheet extruders has been formed under the aegis of EuPC, the association of European plastics processors. European Performance co-Extruders (EPEX) will provide a forum for manufacturers to address the issues of European regulation and legislation affecting ABS/PMMA co-extruded sheets. The founding members are Senoplast Klepsch & Co, Athlone Extrusions and British Vita. Dow Europe has joined as an associate member.
Plans for rapid growth in CBT volume, application and chemistry
October 23, 2004
With its first modest-scale plant in Schwarzeheide, Germany, not yet complete and the first two commercial grades only announced this week, Cyclics Corporation has started looking for a site to build a second plant to make CBT, ten times the size, for start-up possibly in 2009.
CBT is a low viscosity form of PBT. It is made from PBT and is repolymerised during processing to revert to PBT, but with a higher molecular weight, making it 'better than PBT'. It was developed by GE Plastics, but the technology was sold to the specially formed Cyclics Corporation in 1999. Cyclics has spent since then developing partnerships with companies who could capitalise on the potential of the material in their own fields, notably with Dow Automotive, but also with rotomoulder Clarehill Plastics, Alcan and compounder P-Group. To these have recently been added a co-operation with Ahlstrom and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to make composites for wind turbine blades and similar applications, and with Emerson & Cuming which is about to bring to market a syntactic foam for machining into thermoforming plug-assists.
As these development ventures indicate, CBT has particular potential in processes where its water-like viscosity can be used to advantage, such as rotational moulding, casting and infusing fibre reinforcements.
The plant currently under construction at Schwarzeheide will have an initial capacity of 2,500 tonnes. More than half this capacity has already been contracted and Cyclics is planning to double the plant capacity towards the end of next year. At the same time it has started early planning for a second plant of 25,000 - 50,000 tonnes capacity which could be on-line by 2009. The investment in the first plant is Eur 35 m and the company expects to spend Eur 65 m on the second.
In the long term Cyclics expects to broaden the technology to produce more than PBT. Initially the process is designed to use PBT as a starting material, but Cyclics is expecting to go upstream of PBT and make CBT as a parallel rather than consequent process, which will bring its selling price down to an approximate equivalent to that of PBT. Development is still concentrated on optimising the CBT process, but low viscosity polycarbonate is also a possibility, and Cyclics says that in 20 years it could be producing a family of materials.
Borealis plans PP expansion and sells out of Portugal October 23, 2004
Borealis is studying the feasibility of a new random polypropylene plant which would lift its PP capacity by about a fifth. The 330,000 tonnes plant would likely be built at Burghausen in Germany where Borealis anticipates access to a European 'pool' of propylene. The investment cost would be about Eur 200 million and start-up could be around 2007 - 2008.
Earlier this month Borealis sold its Portuguese subsidiary Borealis Polímeros to Repsol, the company with which it tried unsuccessfully to set up a joint venture in 2000. The sale includes the Borealis petrochemical complex at Sines which comprises a cracker with a volume of approximately 350,000 tonnes of ethylene and 180,000 tonnes of propylene and two polyethylene plants, a low density plant with a production capacity of 145,000 tonnes and a high density plant of 130,000 tonnes. The purchase will increase Repsol's cracker capacity by 38 per cent and bring a 28 per cent increase in production capacity in total polyolefins and a 55 per cent increase in polyethylene. Borealis has been steadily improving its profitability and in November expects to issue third quarter results which show a profit in excess of Eur 100 million.
Feathers have been ruffled at Basell by press speculation in Germany that Iran's National Petroleum Company - already a major licensee of Basell technology - was the leading bidder for the company, which has been put up for sale by BASF and Shell. The article in the Financial Times also named two venture capital companies said to be bidding.
Basell itself is naturally giving no details about its possible future beyond that there has been more interest than was anticipated and that final bids would be considered by the beginning of next year. A decision would then be taken by BASF and Shell whether to sell privately or go for a public flotation. Basell has sold its 50 per cent share in the Compagnie Industrielle des Polyethylenes de Normandie (CIPEN) linear low density polyethylene plant in Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon, France to ExxonMobil. The plant runs Exxon's Exxpol metallocene process. Basell says it wants to service the PE film market with its own LD/HDPE technology, although it will continue to supply linear low and metallocene linear low density products for at least another two years.
Technical blow moulding machine manufacturer Kautex is to revive a line of machines for bottle blowing, and to augment it with a range of machines built in China, following the move into receivership of its former packaging machine sister company Blowtec.
Kautex, most vividly remembered as Krupp Kautex (or ThyssenKrupp Kautex) was bought in 2000 along with Krupp Corpoplast and Fischer-W Müller Blasformtechnik by Swiss industrial group SIG as an addition to its focus on packaging machinery. Despite protestations of some sort of synergy, it was clear from the start that machinery for car fuel tanks, toys and other engineering components could not easily be described as packaging machines. SIG recognised this by taking out the bottle machines from Kautex and combining them with the Müller business in a new company, Blowtec. Eventually Kautex was put up for sale in 2002 and was finally bought by German investment capital company Adcuram on May 1. By then the sale had taken a new turn and included Blowtec.
Things soon went wrong. Adcuram claimed that the financial situation at Blowtec was not as it understood it to be and demanded to cancel the contract. SIG argued that Adcuram was aware of the financial situation at both companies and had paid a price that reflected this. Blowtec went into receivership in July, to SIG's 'considerable astonishment'. This left Adcuram without a German-built packaging machine series.
Re-enter the Kautex KEB. The KEB series machines, which ceased production two years ago as Blowtec adopted the design for manufacture in Troisdorf, are to go back into production in Bonn, and alongside them Kautex will be selling the KCC range, built in China for the Chinese market but now CE-marked, worldwide from the first half of next year. Blowtec, now run by the receiver, is understood to only be building those machines which had already been ordered and which can be finished before the end of the year. The receiver is also understood to have sold machine components to Kautex.
Adcuram says that when it bought Kautex the company was in loss, but that it has now been turned around and will make a profit this year of somewhere less than Eur 1 m on sales of Eur 45 m.
Milacron extrusion to rejoin the world October 23, 2004
Milacron extrusion's five year confinement to the USA after its Austrian operation was sold to SMS in 2000 is nearly over, and the company is planning to be back in worldwide extrusion machinery sales from early next year.
Over the past five years, the Cincinnati Milacron twin-screw extruder series has been extended to span from 35 mm to a dual-vented 96 mm machine - the largest conical in the world, says Milacron, targeted at wood composites. The company's parallel twin machines now include 93, 115, 140, and 172 mm sizes, with 26 and 33:1 options for all models. Milacron also builds single-screw extruders and is one of North America's largest rebuilders and manufacturers of parallel and conical twin screws.
Milacron will use its existing global infrastructure to sell extrusion systems in overseas markets. This will include using its production facilities for injection moulding and blow moulding machines in Germany, Italy, Czech Republic and India, and its imminent Chinese machine production
INEOS to take EVC private October 23, 2004
INEOS is proposing to buy the 14 per cent of EVC International that it doesn't own. Its subsidiary Hawkslease Finance Company is making an offer of Eur 3·50/share which the EVC board is supporting.
Bayer Technology Services has strengthened its position in nanotechnology by buying Ehrfeld Mikrotechnik, whose core business is in the development, manufacture and marketing of microreactor modules and process development. Much of the application for Ehrfeld's plants is in fine chemicals, but Bayer expects to be able to apply its processes to the manufacture of bulk chemicals and polymers as well.
New company plans to capitalise on lorry tyre dumping ban October 23, 2004
A start-up company in Plymouth has been awarded a £145,000 grant by Selective Finance for Investment to recycle lorry tyres. Crumb Rubber will operate from premises at Airport Business Centre in Estover, Plymouth and will initially employ 19 people, increasing to at least 29 when operations are scaled up in the third year of business.
The impetus comes from the change in landfill laws in 2006 when dumping of used lorry tyres in landfill will no longer be allowed. Applications for the crumb rubber are expected in the production of new tyres, injection moulded components, road surfacing, safety bases in children's playgrounds, and the manufacture of plastics, adhesives and sealants. Research is currently underway to identify further potential end markets. The company has been working with locally based tyre retreader Bandvulc Tyres on both waste tyre disposal and end use applications for the rubber crumb.
More South American PET planned by M & G October 23, 2004
PET specialist M & G is to build a 450,000 tonnes PET plant in South America - actual site still to be confirmed - for 2006 production. The investment is worth around $70 m.
Output from the new plant will not be aimed at the commodity PET market, which M & G says is already over-supplied and in need of rationalization, but at the growing market for high performance PET. 'We predict that these emerging new applications, that are already fast growing, will reach a demand level that justifies the size of our new investment within the next 2 - 3 years'.
New MD for Barlo October 23, 2004
Patrick Masterson has been appointed managing director of the Quinn Group's Barlo Plastics. He is currently the acquisitions manager for Dublin-based Quinn Group.
Barlo was bought in April by Quinn and is expected to be renamed Quinn Plastics later this year.
Top changes at K-M and MPM October 23, 2004
Josef Märtl has become chairman of the board of management at Krauss-Maffei Kunststofftechnik. He has been the board's spokesman since October 2002.
Further upstream, the board of K-M's parent Mannemann Plastics Machinery has been joind by former Engel director of technology Dr Otto Urbanek, who left the company last year.
From Total to Arkema October 23, 2004
The restructure of Total's chemicals operations has led to the creation of Arkema, which has three divisions, Vinyl Products, Industrial Chemicals and Performance Products. The new company has sales of Eur 5 billion, a workforce of 19,300, and 90 plants and six research centres across Europe, North America and Asia.
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Trexel has also entered an agreement with Ono Sangyo of Japan to improve the surface finish of MuCell parts. Ono Sangyo's Rapid Heat Cycle Molding (RHCM) process is to be combined with MuCell to produce a gloss surface. The RHCM process alone, which combines high mould temperatures and rapid cooling to produce a very high surface gloss without weld lines, is susceptible to the surface blemishes caused by sink marks, while MuCell eliminates sink marks but has a dull finish.