Strictly-Extrusion

Albis (UK) moves into equipment supply with the takeover of the UK and Ireland distribution of Labotek materials handling equipment.

M&Q Packaging Corp., USA will install a new 72-inch-wide nylon blown film line at its Schuylkill Haven manufacturing plant by midyear. The project will cost more than US$1 million.

Alcan Inc. plans to build a contract packaging plant in Pennsylvania designed for the pharmaceutical industry. The Montreal firm´s Margo Conract Packaging and Specialty Cartons division will thermoform PVC sheet purchased elsewhere and convert it to blister packs. The US$30 million facility is slated for an industrial park near Bethlehem.

Crane Co. has purchased the assets of Laminated Profiles Ltd. (Lampro) in Alton, England. Lampro is a leading U.K. producer of fiberglass- reinforced panels for transportation and recreational vehicles. Crane’s Engineered Materials business includes five U.S. and Canadian companies that make fiberglass- reinforced panels for trucks, trailers and recreational vehicles, as well as corrosion- resistant plastic-lined pipes and fittings,other plumbing and sanitary fixtures, and microwave laminates.

Tekni-Films will focus on pharmaceutical and food-grade vinyl films at its newly improved plant in Cambridge, Ontario. The firm has upgraded and nearly doubled capacity of the plant, acquired from Hoechst Canada in 1997. The plant has been making a variety of films, but the company wants it to be the only vinyl film facility in North America dedicated exclusively to pharmaceutical and food grades.

A biocidal masterbatch for extruded blown film packaging has been developed by Douglas Baker Plastics. BakerBio can inhibit the growth of microbial organisms and fungi and also provides UVA and UVB absorption. In addition to packaging, BakerBio is being suggested for applications such as food storage boxes, chopping boards, kitchen work surfaces etc. It is FDA-approved.
For further information : sales@dbplastics.co.uk / www.douglasbaker.co.uk

Valmet Converting, manufacturer of printing and web handling equipment for both film and paper, is planning to add a technology centre to its Valmet Rotomec plant near Milan in Italy. Valmet expects the centre to open early next year. It will cover an area of around 2,000 m2 and will house Rotomec gravure and flexographic printing, coating and laminating equipment, Atlas and Titan slitting and rewinding machines and General vacuum metallising systems.

With nearly thirty years experience in manufacture and marketing of static mixers, Koch-Glitsch continues to lead the industry in new innovation. Among the recent introductions is the new KSM element series. This new element design continues the tradition of creating a plug flow as material passes through the motionless mixing elements within the mixing nozzle. The new 35mm elements are designed to be interchangeable with the conventional sleeved SMX element design in the Koch Mixing Head.

Volex Group plc is moving production of some power cords and electrical cables to a new, 82,000-square-foot plant in Zhongshan. The England-based company is shifting the work from the smaller of its two plants in Shenzhen, China. Its’ Singapore-based subsidiary, Volex (Asia) Pte. Ltd., said the move will capitalize on rapid growth in the telecommunications sector in the area near Hong Kong.

Wintech Winding Technology AG in Switzerland offers high-tech winders for blown and cast film that combine surface, center and gap winding modes. Wintech winders offer precise tension control needed for handling sticky or stretchy films, as well as five- to seven-layer barrier packaging films. Wintech was bought last year by Kiefel Extrusionstechnik GmbH in Germany. Wintech is the successor company to Afex Maschinenbau.