British engineering group IMI, owner of pipe and building components maker Polypipe plc, has purchased Robimatic plc., whose products include pipe systems, heating and energy controls and beverage dispensers. The company said it is paying US$ 28,5 million in cash and loan notes for the Burgess Hill, England.
The japanese Kuraray Group expands its worldwide capacity of EVOH (Ethylen-Vinyl-Alcohol) with the brand “Eval”. The company has increased the output of its US-based facility in Pasadena, Texas by 2.000 tonnes per year to a total of 23.000 tonnes this May. Now the company plans to increase the capacity of its european plant in Belgium by 2.000 tonnes to 12.000 tonnes of EVOH per year.
Industrial Extrusion Belting has designed a new mandrel-made belt for pulling large profiles, like window main profiles. The company has expanded its production facility to produce the 300 inches long belts with no splices. The company can be contacted under Tel./fax +1 (616) 641-5879.
According to the Plastics Pipe Institut in Washington DC sales of plastic pipes in the USA has increased by 18,8 per cent to a total of 635.000 tonnes in 1999.
Polytech SpA, Italy, a manufacturer of double-bubble film extrusion systems, is expanding sales to China and the Pacific Rim. The company has opened an Asia-Pacific representative office in Tangerang, Indonesia. Polytech has also appointed salesmen to represent Polytech at SITI China Ltd.’s offices in Shanghai and Foshan City, China.
Machall Investments believes in the potential of Derby Plastics Ltd., a polyethylene film extruder and bag converter, to double its sales of US$3,4 million within a year or two. For this purpose the investment company plans a general cleanup, a new management and fresh capital. Derby Plastics seemed in trouble after its sole owner retired.
FlatGround.Com is a new e-commerce site for purchasing precision flat-ground (PFG) tool-steel stock 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When ordered online via Internet the company will ship out the same or next business day. The site offers O1, A2, D2, S7 and low-carbon tool steels in standard and oversize tolerances. www.flatground.com
Erema has developed a new system with integrated single-shaft shredder to handle large volume material such as start-up lumps, tangled piles of PP tape, fibre bales or rolls of film. A single-shaft shredder arranged coaxially to the extruder means that it is possible to share the use of one drive unit. Compared with separate or even right-angle configurations, the design is much more straightforward (patent pending).
Welex Incorporated, USA has sold a high performance 1,750 lb/h (800 kg/h) polypropylene packaging line to Kama Corp., USA. This line features a 5″ (130mm) 30 D Mark III extruder , sheet accumulator , 72″ (1800 mm) wide individual roll drive sheet take-off with 18/24/24″ (450/600/600 mm) Contrabendâ rolls, Tidland rotary slitter and indexing centerless disk turret winder with load cell tension control. The entire system is controlled by a pendant mounted Ultima III microprocessor control system. The 5″ (130mm) is a new size from Welex. Kama Corp. has additionally ordered a similar 6″ Welex sheet line for PET. Kama Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ivex Packaging, is a leading producer of PET, HIPS, PP and OPS sheets.
Battenfeld Gloucester, USA has introduced a new three layer cast film extrusion line for PP. The line will be delivered to BOPP specialist Nanjing Zhongda Film Group in Nanjing/China. The system is made for the processing of HOPP and COPP. Battenfeld has already delivered several multi layer cast film extrusion systems for a width of up to 5000 mm, but this is the widest one especially for PP.