Strictly-Extrusion

Elite Cameron exhibits at ‘K’ 2001 for the first time to show off its wide range of products. Within the company’s portfolio of slitter rewinders for film, foil and paper converting, shafted and shaftless unwind stands for a variety of materials, short length rewinders and salvage and doctor rewinders, suitable applications are found for the plastics industries.

The machines in the slitter rewinder range have proved popular with Trade Converters, the Packaging Products industry and Self-Adhesive Converters. They are also able to incorporate the company’s own design automatic knife setting systems, automated roll loading and unloading and the company’s patented differential rewind shaft system. Equipment extends from small, special purpose bench top machines to automated high speed Duplex centre, centre surface and surface driven winder units.

With manufacturing centres in both the UK and the USA and service centres in China and Brazil, Elite Cameron is able to provide a world wide manufacturing service with sales and after sales networks for full support

Reifenhauser Inc. has developed an automatic die-gauge control for making film.
The Reicotherm is a die for monolayer or coextrusion, containing cartridge heaters and integrated thermocouples closely spaced around the die gap. The control is based on temperature adjustments at the corresponding heating zone, increasing the temperature at thick spots and reducing it at thin spots. Film thickness is measured by a capacitive thickness gauge that oscillates on a track around the film bubble. The gauge head is specially designed to work with sticky or scratch-sensitive films.A control panel displays linear and circular cross-sections of the film.

New research from Applied Market Information Ltd has revealed that there are six major sheet manufacturers in Europe producing over 100,000 tonnes/year of product. Furthermore in its new report Corporate performance and ownership among thermoplastic sheet extruders - A review of Europe’s 50 largest players, AMI estimates that the 50 largest sheet producers were
responsible for an estimated 2.3 million tonnes of polymer consumption in
2000, equivalent to nearly three-quarters of the total European market.

EUROPE’S 10 LEADING THERMOPLASTIC SHEET PRODUCERS
Ranking Company Name Head office location Principle sheet products

1 Klöckner Pentaplast GmbH Germany PVC, APET
2 Solvay S.A. Belgium PVC
3 Huhtamäki Oyj Finland PS
4 British Vita PLC UK ABS, PP
5 RPC Group PLC UK PP, PS, PET
6 EVC International NV Netherlands PVC
7 Autobar Group UK PS, PET
8 Barlo Plastics Europe Ireland PMMA, PETG, PS, PC
9 Coexpan S.A. Spain PS
10 Dow Chemical Co USA PS

Woywod Kunststoffmaschinen GmbH + Co., Germany, will use K 2001 to introduce its new generation of Plasticolor dosing equipment, mixing stations and throughput measurement systems.
Woywod said the equipment is very easy to use, requiring only limited data to be entered for each material by means of a rotary push button. A two-line display shows the set point, actual and system condition.
The equipment can be mounted directly onto a processing machine, in a separate housing or in the existing control cabinet. Extruder or take-off controls are available as options.

Corma Inc. has unveiled two innovations in its machinery to produce lightweight corrugated plastic pipe.
The first is a pulsating corrugator, capable of producing pipe with a diameter exceeding 10 feet. The unit is compact, owing to mold blocks that require little space to return to their original positions. The unit has a vacuum- forming design. The first production unit will be delivered later this year, according to Toronto-based Corma.
The second is a double-skin pipe coupling that is created in-line during the production of PVC, polypropylene and polyethylene double-wall pipe. According to Corma, its previous in-line couplings eliminated the need for downstream belling machines.

Extrusion systems maker Processing Technologies Inc., USA, has invested US$3.5 million in a new, bigger factory, building a 60,000-square-foot headquarters in Aurora.

A totally revised range of measure and control systems for extrusions lines will be presented by Octagon Process Technology GmbH of Würzburg, Germany, during the K 2001 (October 25 to November 1 2001), stand 10 E39 in hall 10. With the co-ordinated modules of their new ScenEx range, Octagon have opened up totally new possibilities for function and capacity in an intelligent automation concept: Customer-specific solutions with tailor made control systems are available for each extrusion line.

Poly Compounding LLC, USA, a new toll compounder, has opened its doors in Bloomingdale. Poly Compounding is the handiwork of Scott Crosby and John Wolfe, who bought a pair of kneader compounding lines from Coperion Corp., their former employer. Crosby said he expects a large portion of Poly Compounding’s work to come from polyolefin-based and PVC-based applications in the automotive and wire and cable markets.

Processing Technologies, Inc. has just moved from St. Charles, Ill., to larger headquarters in Aurora, Ill. This supplier of Trident single-screw extrusion systems for cast film, sheet, foam and other applications now occupies 60,000 sq ft, twice the size of its former facility. The added space will accommodate simultaneous assembly of multiple large coextrusion systems.

A Hancor pipe-manufacturing facility previously scheduled to close by the end of this year now will remain open. The company said it had improved efficiency and competitiveness, but would not provide further details on what saved the Brazil plant. The facility has three extrusion lines and 50 full-time employees.