Strictly-Extrusion

Clients of Witt Plastics Inc., USA, an extruder of PP, HIPS and other sheet products, will be able to access their order and account information through Witt’s new extranet website. The password-protected site lets users view their order history and current orders; sort those orders by customer part, purchase-order number, or other criteria; view shipping details; and search for sales orders by status, date, numbers or codes. Users can also print copies of sales-order or invoice forms that closely represent the original, and can give on-line feedback, as well as link directly to Witt Plastics’ main website to receive other customer- related information.

At K 2001 AMUT SpA will be exhibiting a complete series of extrusion equipment. The EA 100 extruder is fitted with a 230 HP DC motor with screw speed up to 170 rpm/m. The plasticising unit of the new design allows high performance using PP of any grade. During the exhibition, the line will extrude a sheet of PP homopolymer with high transparency. Using the same screw, the line is also capable of producing HIPS sheet (over 690 kg/h), granting a high flexibility, to be competitive in the packaging market. In addition to the EA 100, AMUT will also be displaying a twin screw extruder 92 mm series 2000, which belongs to the third generation of AMUT twin screw extruders.

A mega-company deal put together by Apax Partners & Co. Ventures Ltd. to buy Mannesmann Plastics Machinery AG has officially ended, with the two sides disagreeing over the reasons for its collapse. The breakup of the deal also means a related sale of Netstal Maschinen AG to Swiss billionaire Christoph Blocher has been canceled.

Bunzl Extrusion Inc., USA, is adding to its fence product line by acquiring another firm’s line of plastic enhancements for chain-link fence. Patrician’s plastic tubular extrusions are inserted into chain-link wire. The product line includes PVT Top-Locking Slat, Max-Slat, Fence Weave, American Permahedge and the CBC Slat. Only fence products for the professional market are included in the deal.

Targeting an expanding North American market, Bayer Plastics has added a production line at its Berlin facility to extrude Bayfol CR film for electronics applications. The US$3 million project took about a year to complete and gives Bayer a second production point for the film, which had been produced for more than 15 years solely in Germany.

BMH Chronos Richardson has started deliveries of materials handling equipment to Polish cable manufacturer
Krakowska Fabryka Kabli as part of a £690,000 project through Farrel. The equipment consists of a new mixer feed system, and upgrades to an existing Chronos Richardson system supplied during the 1980s. New equipment is being supplied to handle three new materials on an existing K7 line, and the old SOW900 controller is being upgraded to a CR3000 process control system. Other modifications are being made to the existing carbon black and white fillers intake. The new mixer gravity feed system is being installed on a K5 mixer and will weigh batches of carbon black, white fillers, oils and polymers.

Applied Extrusion Technologies Inc., USA, has exited nets and related markets to focus on oriented polypropylene films. AET sold its specialty nets and nonwovens business to DelStar Technologies Inc., a company formed by RFE Investment Partners. The sale grossed US$23 million for AET.

Valmet Converting will launch and present the new Valmet ‘Film Master’ sheeter at K, representing an important new technology for the company and diversifying its already wide range of sheeters into the plastic film sector. The ‘Film Master’ converts multiple reels of plastic film to sheets, with no edge welding, completely eliminating the need for guillotine trimming.
The Valmet sheeter range also comprises the cost-effective TSK and CTS sheeters, which are ideal solutions for sheet-fed printers of paper, board and laminates. With press-ready stacking, high-speed/high-precision operation, Valmet says they provide the most economic and versatile sheeting solutions.

A new lineof calcium stearates for PVC processing reportedly provides better early color and much longer heat stability than traditional calcium stearates. In consequence, tin stabilizer levels can be cut by 25 to 50%, says Dover Chemical Corp., Dover, Ohio. Its new Doverlube TriCal products are novel over-based stearates that contain three times the amount of calcium as traditional calcium stearates. Brabender studies have shown TriCal to increase long-term heat stability by 21 to 36%, depending on the tin stabilizer used. The TriCal 30 Series is best suited to applications with reverse-ester methyltin stabilizers. TriCal 40 Series is recommended for thioglycolate methyltin systems. Market manager Bill Hood says PVC processors can work compounds harder without deterioration of color or performance.

Advanced Elastomer Systems (AES) NV/SA will present its range of engineered thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs), as a co-exhibitor with one of its German distributors, Biesterfeld Plastic GmbH. AES has recently introduced several new technologies and products such as the Santoprene M300 family of thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) grades.In addition, Santoprene TPV has been chosen for the foamed co-extruded bonnet seals fitted to the latest Fiat Punto. Developed by Ziliani SpA in cooperation with AES, this new application involves the co-extrusion of two grades of Santoprene TPV. The seal is said to offer excellent temperature resistance, load distribution and sealing properties, as well as being easy to process. For the construction window market in Europe, two grades of Santoprene TPV 8000 series have been introduced. Available in hardnesses rated at Shore A 60 and 70, both grades are colourable and meet the RAL-GZ 716/1 specifications for extruded profiles.