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MCP to sell Toshiba moulding machines April 23, 2006
Japanese injection moulding machine builder Toshiba has appointed MCP Tooling Technologies as its European sales agent. Customer support will continue to be handled through Toshiba's offices in Germany and the UK.
Toshiba was one of the first Japanese injection moulding machine companies to set up in Britain, when it appointed Gordon Ward - later Renwick Skelsey - to represent it in the 1970s. It eventually set up its own subsidiary in Milton Keynes in 2000.
MCP, best known for supplying prototyping equipment and materials, has its own range of benchtop injection machines, which it boosted in 1999 when it bought the Butler Designs range.
The new agreement, which comes into effect immediately, gives MCP sales responsibility for the whole of Toshiba's all-electric and hydraulic machine range through its offices in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
Plastic composite supports glass in sunroofs April 23, 2006
As polycarbonate increases its penetration of vehicle roof glazing, glass is fighting back with the aid of a new product - already in use by Mercedes-Benz - which imparts some of the benefits of plastics glazing. Spallshield from DuPont Glass Laminating Solutions is a composite of PVB and PET, with an additional anti-scratch coating on the PET, which can be applied to a single, standard layer of glass using traditional glass lamination processes and eliminates the need for a second layer of glass.
DuPont says that when applied to a single layer of glass, Spallshield provides up to eight times the impact performance of standard laminated glass and protects against spalling - fragmentation - should the glass be broken, while weighing up to 30 per cent less.
Borealis plans R & D expansion April 23, 2006
A plan by Borealis to expand its R & D facilities will see investment in Austria, the Nordic countries and the Middle East.
The company is to expand its Innovation Centre in Linz, Austria, into the centre of its international research activities, with an increase in staffing of around 80 people over the next five years. This will be accompanied by a Eur 25 - 30 million investment at the centre over that period. At the same time
the Upper Austria government will invest approximately Eur 18·7 million in a number of infrastructure changes to internationalise Johannes Kepler University (JKU) and expand international research in Upper Austria by 2011. Borealis intends to enhance cooperation with JKU in future research projects, and also to work with the Wels Advanced Technical College and other universities and institutes in Austria.
In Porvoo, Finland Borealis will invest Eur 6 - 7 million this year in new facilities and laboratories to create a single Innovation Centre for catalyst and process research, and the company intends to merge its two remaining Innovation Centres - in Bamble, Norway and Stenungsund, Sweden - into one Scandinavian Innovation Centre.
Plans are also underway to establish an Innovation Centre in Abu Dhabi as part of the company's Borouge joint venture with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
PBT plant takes BASF a step closer to its Asian goals April 23, 2006
The BASF/Toray Industriesjoint venture PBT plant in Kuantan, Malaysia, has started operations. The 60,000 tonnes plant uses butanediol supplied by neighbouring BASF Petronas Chemicals, processed by Toray polymerisation technology. Its output is being sold independently by both partners as Ultradur and Toraycon.
BASF is well-known for its Verbund policy of integrating the facilities at its plants, and the Toray BASF PBT Resin joint venture applies that principle to the company's Asian operations, with base PBT being supplied to its existing compounding plants in Pasir Gudang, Malaysia, and Ansan, Korea, and to the new compounding plant currently under construction in Pudong, China.
BASF has a goal of generating 20 per cent of sales and earnings in its chemical activities in Asia Pacific and increasing the share of local production to 70 per cent by 2010.
Quinn moves into moulding materials with acrylic grades April 18, 2006
Acrylic sheet supplier Quinn Plastics is moving into the moulding material field with three grades of acrylic for injection moulding and extrusion. The three basic grades of Quinn Acryl are high stiffness (standard), high viscosity and impact-modified.
Quinn operates two former Barlo Plastics acrylic production sites in Slovakia and in Germany, with a total polymerisation capacity somewhere in excess of 37,000 tonnes. But this capacity is to be dwarfed in a couple of years when Quinn opens its new plant near Leipzig in Germany, where it will have methyl methacrylate monomer capacity of around 100,000 tonnes. Hence the expansion into a new product line.
Quinn Acryl will be sold directly by the company across Europe.
DSM to double Chinese engineering compounds production April 18, 2006
DSM is about to open a new engineering plastics compounding plant in China which will double capacity there for Stanyl PA46, Akulon PA6 and Arnite PBT. The new plant, which has been designed for further expansion, will meet growing local demand and serve as a major base from which to supply the Asia Pacific region.
Rotomoulders set up E Europe division April 17, 2006
The Association of Rotational Molders International has set up a Central and Eastern European Division. The formation of the new division followed moves by a group of rotational moulders to set up their own organisation in Central Europe, but who then decided to become a division of ARM International instead. Countries initially represented in this division are; Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Greece, Cyprus and Slovakia.
Interplas back on track in 2008 April 13, 2006
Interplas has been restored to its original three-year cycle. It has been moved out of the controversial Spring 2007 slot and returned to Autumn 2008, when it will be held at the NEC in Birmingham on September 23 - 25.
When the break to the traditional cycle was announced during the last exhibition there was some concern among exhibitors about its proximity to the K2007 exhibition in Düsseldorf. We commented at the time that if enough exhibitors expressed their feeling soon enough and strongly enough, the organisers could reinstate the original schedule.
Well they did, and Reed Exhibitions has.
The original move was made as a reaction to the slide in support for Interplas which made the 2005 show the smallest ever. Its position as a stand-alone exhibition was becoming untenable as a commercial event, and Reed decided to amalgamate it with an existing group of parallel exhibitions, Total Packaging and Processing. But some exhibitors at the 2005 show felt that as Interplas would then only be 5 months before K2007 they would be able to attend only one exhibition, and that Interplas could become even smaller as exhibitors elected to go only to K.
A statement from Reed says: 'over the past few months we have been encouraged to receive very strong messages of support for a 2008 exhibition. The voices from the equipment suppliers in the sector have been particularly strong and since we are in the business of listening closely to our customers we will now prepare an event that once more exceeds their expectation and closely matches their needs.'
Those 'voices from the equipment suppliers' were in the main the collective voice of the Polymer Machinery Manufacturers and Distributors Association. Earlier this year the PMMDA wrote to both Reed Exhibitions and Emap - which stages the Plastics Design and Moulding exhibition - to say what its members wanted as a British plastics exhibition. This was that it should be held in 2008, should be at the NEC in Birmingham, and should cover the whole plastics industry and not be focused on a single sector. The reinstatement of Interplas is Reed's response.
The Reed statement continues: 'Interplas 2008 will cover every aspect of plastics manufacturing - from raw materials supply, to ancillary and capital equipment as well as processing features, training, education and end-use market focused sectors for the exhibition. The triennial cycle has been endorsed by all leading bodies in the industry.
'We are delighted to have settled a way forward for Interplas. With the support of the trade associations, many of the existing contracted companies and a significant number of lapsed exhibitors we feel very positive about the future.'
Emap has not yet responded formally to the PMMDA's overtures. It currently intends to maintain its 18 months cycle for PDM which will take place in the Spring of 2008, around 6 months before Interplas - as it was in 2005. A spokesman for Emap said that while the company was listening to what the PMMDA was saying, PDM is more than just a machinery show, and it had to consider the views of all interested sectors. In particular, as the booking of stands by Bayer, Lanxess and Victrex for PDM '06 indicates, it is being supported by the materials manufacturers, who over past years have steadily withdrawn from the 'traditional' plastics exhibitions.
BP expands European PET precursor capacity April 13, 2006
BP has increased paraxylene capacity at its Geleen, Netherlands, plant to 560,000 tonnes and plans to go ahead with a project to expand purified terephthalic acid production there. De-bottlenecking the site will add a further 350,000 tonnes of PTA, bringing annual capacity up to 1·4 million tonnes.
The increase will be achieved by retrofitting the latest generation of BP's proprietary PTA technology to Geel's two existing PTA production units. BP says the process offers the lowest capital cost per tonne of PTA capacity of any current technology and also lowers variable costs significantly compared to conventional PTA technology. It is already being applied to new PTA production BP is building in Asia, such as the new 900,000 tonnes plant planned for Zhuhai, China.
The Geel expansion will be operational early next year.
Coperion sells Buss April 10, 2006
Compounding equipment manufacturer Buss has been sold by the Coperion Group to its management backed by Zurich-based investment company Fabrel Lotos. Buss was formerly owned, with Waeschle, by the Georg Fischer Group of Switzerland. In 2000 Fischer set up a new company with financiers West Private Equity of Britain and Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale of Germany which bought Werner & Pfleiderer from ThyssenKrupp and later that year Buss, Waeschle and Werner & Pfleiderer were merged into Coperion Holding with the declared aim of becoming an independent, possibly publicly owned, company in 3 - 5 years.
Coperion has expanded with the acquisition of Nanjing Keya of China and the plastics operations of Bühler of Switzerland, but still remains under the control of West Private Equity and Westdeutsche LG.
The 'friendly separation' of Buss from Coperion is being back-dated to January 1. No details are being given of the sale price. Buss has annual sales around CHF 60 million and employs 200 people with sales and service facilities in Chicago, Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo.
Plastics recyclers claim misrepresentation of European reclaim rates April 9, 2006
The European Plastic Recyclers organisation EuPR has reacted angrily to the publication by PlasticsEurope - formerly the Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe - of what it says is the wrong data on European plastics recycling, and for publishing it in haste. PlasticsEurope has apologised for jumping the gun.
The row is about the release of PlasticsEurope's 'green book' statistical report on plastics consumption and recovery which EuPR says 'contains questionable data on plastics recycling. The figures appear to be expressing a percentage of plastics waste for collection and not recycling'. And the organisation, which represents some 80 per cent of plastics recycling companies in Europe, accuses PlasticsEurope's members of hindering legislation to increase the recovery rate of waste plastics.
According to EuPR the report says that recycling levels of 60 per cent are being achieved in Germany, whereas this 'nonsense' figure includes energy recovery, feed stock recycling and mechanical recycling. In addition, says EuPR, the figures do not distinguish between collection, export and recycling in Europe nor does the report differentiate between production waste and post-consumer waste.
The recycling statistics for 2004 were being compiled with input from both organisations and EuPR says it asked PlasticsEurope to wait for final consultation before publishing the report. In a statement following EuPR's condemnation of the report PlasticsEurope said it 'regrets the premature release of information not yet approved internally'.
According to the EuPR the recycling levels for post-consumer plastics waste went down last year. It believes that the overall plastics mechanical recycling rate for all applications in Europe is only 2·2 million tonnes - 4·1 per cent of the more than 50 million tonnes of plastics processed in the EU. This could be improved by European legislation and it is urging the European Union to initiate a Plastics Recycling Directive - which it says has been 'sitting on the Commission desk for several years' but which it says has been blocked by the petrochemical companies. 'Now that the European politicians are discussing the Thematic Recycling Strategy for Europe for the next 10 - 20 years the producing industry should accept its responsibilities and help achieve higher plastics mechanical recycling rates'.
This is the second time in a couple of months that the recyclers' organisation has crossed swords with another European plastics trade body. In February it urged PET bottle producers not to use blends of PET to achieve barrier properties because they would downgrade the value of the recovered material - at an obvious disadvantage to its members. Not so, said Petcore, the body with a specific interest in the recycling of PET. Only about 10 per cent of recovered PET went back into bottles, the remainder going into fibres where the loss of clarity from blended polymers was not so important. And tests had been done on recyclate from some blended polymers which showed it suitable for recycling into both fibres and bottles.
Self-heating food packaging nears test market April 9, 2006
Water/lime reaction heats convenience food in plastics packaging
A plastic food container with an integral heating device is to undergo trials with one of the big three supermarkets in the next couple of months. The package has been developed by Steam To Go of Bruton in Somerset, and produced by Dragon Plastics of Pontypridd in mid-Glamorgan.
The heat source for the container is the exothermic reaction between water and quicklime. The two are brought together at the press of a button and the resulting reaction generates heat up to 300 degC, creating a stream of steam which passes through a series of small holes into the food compartment where it re-heats the pre-cooked food within about 4 minutes. As well as the integral re-heating, Steam To Go is emphasising the benefits of steaming as a cooking method, and is focusing potential product ranges on rice, pasta and noodle recipes, which benefit more from steaming than microwave or oven cooking.
The heat engine is currently being injection moulded in polypropylene, but nylon 66 is also under trial and a final decision on the material selection has still to be made before the test market products are moulded.
The food container is injection moulded in LLDPE and the reaction actuator is injection moulded in HDPE. A lidding film over the food container assists in condensation during heating.
After use the container is likely to be disposed of by incineration, where the remnants of the lime assist the maintenance of the furnace.
The emphasis on the development has been the ready meal market, but the two companies are anticipating other applications for packaging that heats up its contents in beauty products, gardening or agrochemical preparations, or scientific applications where a reagent could be heated to a preset temperature for field trials.
Steam To Go has applied the principal before, to a self-heating coffee can that it developed with Nestlé in 2002, but did not take off commercially.
PE improved by irradiation, but without the downsides of crosslinking April 9, 2006
A method of improving the properties of polyethylene by irradiating it but without causing quality-lowering gels and cross linking which could hamper recycling has been devised by an American irradiation specialist. Steriginics Advanced Applications will be showing its Raprex materials at NPE in Chicago in June. The company says that its electron beam technology produces branched high density and linear low density PE with the processing advantages of conventional branched LDPE but with the greater toughness and other desirable physical properties of linear PE.
Taking blown film as an example, the company says that in the past processors have blended LDPE and LLDPE to get the balance of processability and physical properties they need for packaging films. But now Raprex R-300 used alone provides higher blow-up ratios and improved gauge uniformity without reducing physical properties.
The Raprex materials are being sold in bulk, but Steriginics also provides irradiation services for cross linking other materials, such as PTFE powders, nylons and PBT. The Raprex materials are being offered in four grades: for extrusion applications where they bring improved stiffness and other mechanical properties, higher burst strengths in tubes and piping, improved environmental stress cracking resistance and higher melt strength; injection moulding for improved mechanical strength and impact strength, improved thermal stability and improved flame retardant properties; for film, bringing better tear strength and puncture strength, enhanced mechanical properties, improved melt strength, and improved processability over standard polymers; and for powder coating with good adhesion to metal and plastics as well as other materials such as cement and wood; high peel strength; and very good abrasion resistance.
Sterigenics International reckons to be the world's largest provider of sterilisation and laboratory services, with 40 service centres in 11 countries. It says it is the only company to offer all leading sterilisation technologies, including: gamma, ethylene oxide, electron beam, X-ray and steam.
Lanxess is to expand production of nylon 6 at its Krefeld-Uerdingen site in Germany as part of a targeted 50 per cent sales increase over the next five years. The Eur 12 m investment will make its Durethan unit one of the world's biggest PA6 plants when it comes on stream in early 2007.
One of the growth factors anticipated by Lanxess is the use of nylon 6 in hybrid automotive components combining steel and plastics. Lanxess has continued the development started by Bayer into 'assembling' steel components by overmoulding with nylon, and recently presented to the German automotive industry's VDI Conference on Plastics in Automotive Engineering in Mannheim an alternative to spot welding, and a technology for replacing steel sheets in hybrid constructions with thermoplastic fibre composites.
New light shines on development at Bayer April 7, 2006
'The little light in the handbag' has grown into a business of its own at Bayer. A few years ago Bayer developed an electroluminescent film that lights up when a current is applied. Unlike previous technologies which were limited to flat surfaces, the Bayer film could be moulded into any shape, and to prove the point the company used it to illuminate the contents of ladies' handbags.
Now Bayer MaterialScience has turned the technology into a separate company with the start-up of Lyttron Technology with a Eur 24·5 million investment. The company is expected to have more than 150 employees by 2012. Projects are under way with a number of potential customers for applications taking advantage of the technology's full-surface lighting which generates no heat. Lyttron is targeting the automotive industry as one of the largest markets, for applications such as the interior lighting of glove compartments. Coincidentally Bayer has an involvement in a parallel concept through its Exatec joint venture with GE, which recently unveiled an electroluminescent film built into the roof glazing for the interior illumination of motor vehicles. Other areas being investigated by Lyttron are the manufacture of 'lifestyle goods' such as cell phones.
PET reheats quicker without loss of clarity April 7, 2006
A PET grade intended to shorten reheat times in the reheat blow moulding process, but without the drop in clarity that this has meant before, has been introduced by Eastman. The new Vorcalor PET CB01S contains proprietary infrared absorbing additives that shorten the reheat time, speeding plant output and reducing energy consumption in the blowing process by up to 25 per cent.
The company says that using IR additives normally brings a trade-off between production efficiency and product quality. Vorcalor reverses that. In addition, the reduced heat input needed for Vorcalor preforms - particularly when they have been stored in a cold warehouse - generates less acetaldehyde. Eastman says that Vorcalor also improves blow moulding consistency, which allows the reduction of preform weight, reducing bottle wall thickness. It has 'an exceptionally wide' operating window for injection moulding the preforms, with shorter cooling time, less risk of crystallisation and ease of demoulding.
Vorcalor is being made at San Roque in Spain, primarily for the Spanish, Portuguese, North African and Southern French markets.
BASF invests in US polyurethanes April 5, 2006
BASF is increasing capacity for polyurethanes in the USA with investment at its site in Geismar, Louisiana. It is to build two polyol reactors and revamp two existing reactors, and to switch a major part of the polyol production at its Wyandotte, Michigan site to Geismar. Overall polyol capacity in the USA will rise 100,000 tonnes to 350,000 tonnes by 2008 and BASF will also replace much of its bought-in polyol volume with its own production.
A new logistics centre will also be built for polyurethane basic products and other chemicals increasing this new investment in polyols to about $125 million.
Also at Geismar BASF has bought a dinitrotoluene plant from Air Products and Chemicals for $155 million. This will supply BASF's 160,000 tonnes toluene diisocyanate plant at Geismar.
Horners Award open for entries April 5, 2006
Entries are now being invited for the annual Horners Award. The awards competition is run jointly by the Worshipful Company Of Horners (an ancient guild and livery company) and the British Plastics Federation and is awarded for innovation in plastics design and manufacture or in the processing of plastics. The deadline for entries is August 14. For an application form: hprice@bpf.co.uk.
Toray has big plans for PLA films April 5, 2006
Toray Industries is to expand potential for its Ecodear polylactic acid (PLA) bio-sourced material with investment both at home in Japan and overseas to build annual sales of PLA film to ¥25 billion (Eur 175 million) by 2010. It is starting with a Eur 7 million investment in a 5,000 tonnes film and sheet plant at its South Korean films and fibres subsidiary Toray Saehan which should start up in January next year. The initial market will be in South Korea, where containers for takeaway food are rapidly switching to bio-sourced plastics, while it also promotes new applications in Japan where the move towards adoption of bio-sourced plastics is gaining momentum.
Alongside the promotion of existing PLA materials Toray is planning a series of higher performance films with better heat and impact resistance made using its nano-alloy technology. This enables polymers to be alloyed at a nano level. Toray has already commercialised a PLA alloy in a grade with higher temperature and flame resistance used in the case of a notebook computer.
Smithers buys Rapra April 4, 2006
It's official. Rapra Technology's new owner is The Smithers Group of the USA. The independent testing, consulting and contract research organisation closed the deal with the administrator today after more than a week of speculation and rumour. The financial terms of the deal are not being revealed.
Rapra was placed in administration on March 8, apparently because of the management team's concerns about the company's pensions liability which threatened its financial future. There followed a bitter reaction from some existing staff and pensioners, crying foul about the move which some claimed as unjustified. A spokeman for Smithers today said that the company was obviously aware of the pension fund situation which was 'something we would have to deal with', but the company was not in a position to offer a 'game plan'.
All 118 remaining members of the Shawbury and Billingham staffs are being transferred to the Smithers Group, which already employs 500 people in the US and Europe. Twenty one staff were dismissed when the company went into administration. The Smithers spokesman was unable to comment on the hostility towards the management team expressed by some staff publicly but anonymously on a bulletin board at www.rapadmin.com. A joint statement from Smithers and Rapra quoted Rapra chief executive Andrew Ward saying: 'I am pleased that this period of uncertainty is now over for both our customers and staff. Whilst the past few weeks have been extremely challenging for Rapra, we now put the past behind us and look to the future with renewed certainty.
'Last year, we embarked on a strategic growth plan. The past couple of weeks have caused a slight hiatus in that plan, but we are now set to continue with the full support of The Smithers Group and look forward to bringing additional and enhanced services to benefit our existing and new customers.'
The fit between Smithers and Rapra is a tight one. Both companies have long histories and are independent and both have a diverse range of analytical, testing, research and information services to the rubber and plastics industries. Smithers chief executive Michael Hochschwender commented: 'Rapra will provide a critical link to the UK and European markets, particularly in the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors.'
Smithers Scientific Services is the oldest member of the Smithers Group. It was established in 1925 as an impartial testing ground for the tyre industry, and evolved into a multi-discipline, independent testing, research and consulting firm. It has a global client base in the rubber and plastics industries and throughout the automotive supply chain. The company has locations in Ohio, Michigan, South Carolina and Texas.
The Smithers Group extends to Smithers Quality Assessments, established in 1993 as an accredited third-party registrar providing quality and environmental management system certification services to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and related standards; Springborn Smithers Laboratories specialising in contract research and regulatory compliance for the pharmaceutical, agrichemical and speciality chemical industries; and the most recent member, Synomics Pharma Services, which offers analytical-based research services to support the development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and consumer healthcare products.
Lanxess plans another round of restructuring April 4, 2006
More restructuring is planned by Lanxess to improve profitability. Around 25 per cent of its business is still unprofitable, and a further 30 per cent is not making enough profit, the company revealed at its Spring financial news conference today. But while this is a significant overall improvement on the previous year, 'we clearly cannot afford to lessen the pace of our restructuring efforts'.
For the past year Lanxess has been restructuring its operations and axing loss-makers in an attempt to save cash. This has included restructuring production of styrenics in Germany and Spain, nitrile rubber in France, rubber chemicals in the USA, streamlining of polybutadiene production in the USA, and the sale of its Dorlastan fibres and iSL-Chemie businesses.
Now the company has targets of another Eur 50 m a year savings from a new package of restructuring and disposals. It is examining ways to make its Styrenic Resins business more competitive worldwide. The restructure of the European business is proving effective and Lanxess is applying the same principles to the Americas, concentrating on the specialties business and focusing on a single regional location. It is moving some commercial functions from its US headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Addyston, Ohio, and is planning 'asset consolidation and process optimisation' to ensure the future viability of the site. This involves about 80 job cuts.
The uneconomic styrenic resins production facility at Camacari in Brazil, will close during this year. Also in Brazil, Lanxess has completed the consolidation of the Inorganic Pigments business unit site in Porto Feliz.
In its rubber businesses Lanxess is planning to streamline business and production operations at the polybutadiene rubber sites in Orange, Texas, USA and Port-Jérôme in France. Means for saving more than Eur 20 million by asset consolidation and process optimisation have been proposed at the Butyl Rubber business unit's site in Zwijndrecht, Belgium.
Altogether Lanxess is proposing to cut 250 jobs outside Europe.
In addition to the new restructuring moves, Lanxess expects to dispose of more businesses 'that cannot achieve satisfactory earnings or leading positions in the foreseeable future'. In the main this means its Textile Processing Chemicals business unit, part of the Performance Chemicals segment, which produces flame-retardant textiles for occupational clothing and special textiles for soundproofing in cars.
Overall in 2005 Lanxess increased its sales 5·6 per cent to Eur 7·15 billion, and its pre-tax profit by 30 per cent to Eur 581 million - although the heavy one-time cost of restructuring cut profits to increase the company's net loss from Eur 12 million in 2004 to Eur 63 million in 2005.
Dow buys PE production in Romania April 4, 2006
Dow Chemical is pitching for lower cost business in Eastern Europe by appointing a Romanian polypropylene company to make polyethylene on its behalf. It has done a deal with Rompetrol Petrochemicals, part of the Rompetrol Group, for Rompetrol to make LD and HDPE using Dow technology and feedstock - Dow will supply ethylene to Rompetrol Petrochemicals until the Romanian company starts up its own pyrolysis installation. Initial production is expected at the rate of 60,000 tonnes a year, with a target of an annual 100,000 tonnes.
In addition to the toll manufacturing agreement, the two companies expect marketing benefits through Rompetrol's position in Eastern Europe which will benefit Dow, and Dow's technology and market presence which Rompetrol expects will enhance its domestic market position, and its position in markets to which it currently sells polypropylene - Rompetrol is Romania's leading polypropylene producer with 64 per cent of the domestic market and 80,000 tonnes annual capacity.
Huhtamaki to sell EPS businesses April 4, 2006
Huhtamaki is to sell its expanded polystyrene meat and poultry packaging businesses in France and Portugal to Ono Packaging in France. The businesses have annual net sales of around Eur 21 million and employ some 130 people.
New name for closures group April 4, 2006
The former Crown Cork Global Plastic Closures business, which was sold to Paris, France-based private equity company PAI Partners last year for around $750 million, has been renamed Global Closure Systems. It consists of a group of companies making plastic and metal closing and dispensing systems for the food, beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical, household and industrial markets worldwide under the brands of Astra Plastique, Bender, Massmould, Obrist, UCP and Zeller. The group has 29 plants in 15 countries in Europe, the US and Asia, with 3,500 employees. It sells to more than 100 countries and makes more than 38 billion closures annually.
Mobile phone casing made from 'highest biomass plastic yet' April 4, 2006
Plant-based fibres are being added to plant-based plastics in Japan to mould a mobile phone casing that has a biomass ingredient ratio of around 90 per cent - higher than any other plastic used in electronic devices, according to its developers.
Electronics company NEC Corporation joined with textile group Unitika to develop the material, used in the NTT DoCoMo FOMA N701iECO mobile phone which went on sale in Japan in March. The matrix material is PLA - polylactic acid - which has a substantial growth rate worldwide in packaging materials and in other plastics products where performance demands are not too high. But its application in electronics goods is limited by its heat resistance and mechanical strength.
One way of improving the properties of PLA has been to blend it with other plastics. Fujitsu has blended PLA in around a 50:50 ratio with an unspecified 'non-crystalline plastic' with a high glass transition temperature and flame-retardant technology in the casing of a notebook computer. Sharp developed a compatibiliser to enable PLA to be blended with PP from recycled electronics equipment. And closer to home BASF has alloyed NatureWorks' polylactic acid with its own petrochemically-sourced Ecoflex biodegradable copolyester, with mobile phone casings as one possible application.
The new material from NEC and Unitika takes a more commonplace route to improving a material's mechanical and thermal properties - by reinforcing it with a fibre - but in this case continues the quest for bio credentials by using a fibre from a natural source. The fibre is made from kenaf, a member of the hibiscus family and related to cotton and okra. It grows between three and nine times faster than most plants achieving heights of around 4 m in four to five months. Kenaf is used to make paper and the US Department of Agriculture has found that kenaf yield of 6 to 10 tonnes of dry fibre per acre per year - 3 to 5 times greater than the yield for Southern pine trees, which can take from 7 to 40 years to reach harvestable size.
The PLA/kenaf composite was tested for its durability by using it for a component in a PC, and for the mobile phone application it was further improved. Its moisture resistance was increased by basing the composite on Unitika's commercial PLA product Terramac, drop impact resistance was increased by adding a biomass-based flexibiliser and a reinforcing filler specially developed for the purpose by NEC and mouldability was improved with additives that were jointly developed by NEC and Unitika.
Ciba joins seaweed-based anti-bacterial research April 4, 2006
Ciba Specialty Chemicals has linked with Biosignal of Australia to develop anti-microbial compounds for consumer and industrial products based on Biosignal's anti-biofilm technology with exclusivity in applications for plastics, coatings, paints, fibres and paper. The formation of biofilms in many industrial environments can lead to fouling, corrosion, material degradation and general contamination. Biosignal's anti-biofilm technology is based on a discovery that the eastern Australian seaweed Delisea pulchra produces natural furanones that disable bacteria's ability to colonize.
Development is expected to begin next month and testing will occur at Ciba's laboratories in Basel, Switzerland and at Biosignal's laboratories in Sydney, Australia.
Simpler structure for Amcor Flexibles as Graham James retires April 4, 2006
Amcor Flexibles chief executive Graham James is to retire at the end of June, and Amcor will restructure the business into three global application groups - food, health care and tobacco. The current Processed Foods and Fresh Food business sectors will be combined to form a new Amcor Flexibles Food organisation based in Brussels and headed by Gérard Blatrix, currently MD of the Fresh Food sector. Ian Gunn, currently MD of the Processed Foods sector, is also to retire at the end of June 2006.
The existing European and Americas Healthcare businesses will come together as one global organisation, Amcor Flexibles Healthcare, led by Peter Brues and based in Chicago, USA.
Responsibility for the tobacco business globally as well as the Amcor Flexibles operations in Poland and Russia will be taken on by Amcor Rentsch which will run alongside Amcor Flexibles E Europe in Rickenbach, Switzerland. The existing Amcor Flexibles corporate office structure will be incorporated within the new business groups and the current Gloucester head office will be phased out by the end of this year.
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