Teich AG and Danapak A/S plan to pool their resources to create a joint venture that they claim will solidify Teich’s rank as the third largest flexible packaging company in Europe. The deal will give Danapak a wider market beyond its Nordic base and bring Teich expertise in extrusion and coextrusion technology.
Canada’s Plastival Inc. is searching for its first stateside manufacturing location in Chicago. The Laval, Quebec-based fence and decking extruder will invest US$3 million to US$5 million to construct a 100,000-square-foot building, according to Alan Townsend, marketing supervisor.
Plastics sheet distributors come under the spotlight in a new analysis by Plimsoll Publishing which, among other things, names companies in the analysis which other companies in the analysis could realistically purchase.
Plimsoll publishes regular reports on market sectors in which it makes some forthright assessments of companies’ worth and potential. In its distributors analysis it assesses the strengths and weaknesses of 100 companies and names 12 companies which it says are losing pace – of which three have sales over £158 million – and 16 which its says need a period of great change in order to compete. As part of its analysis Plimsoll has calculated the current and future worth of each company, and predicts the likely strategy each is to take over the next 12 months.
DuPont is planning to dispose of some of its fibres businesses in a realignment into five groups. It is setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary called DuPont Textiles & Interiors which it aims to hive off by the end of next year. This new business will include the nylon, polyester and Lycra fibres businesses. The company’s other fibre operations are incorporated in the appropriate sectors of Electronic & Communication Technologies; Performance Materials; Coatings & Color Technologies; Safety & Protection and Agriculture & Nutrition.
The existing Engineering Polymers, Packaging & Industrial Polymers; and interests in DuPont Dow Elastomers and DuPont Teijin Films will be grouped in DuPont Performance Materials.
Extruder Imperial PlasTech Inc. plans to acquire Pultronex Corp., a producer of pultruded glass-fiber-reinforced plastic decking, railings, sea walls and scaffolding in Edmonton, Alberta. Imperial agreed to pay about US$377,000 for certain Pultronex production equipment and intellectual property.
CertainTeed Corp., USA, is shuttering its extrusion facility in Grinnell, Iowa. The plant, which employs 112, is one of nine extrusion locations for Valley Forge-based CertainTeed, a diversified manufacturer of vinyl pipe, windows, siding and fencing.
Mannesmann Plastics Machinery Group, Germany, sees orders decline in financial 2001 has reported a 17% downturn in the value of new orders in the first nine months of 2001 to EUR 884m. Sales fell 7% to EUR 915m, according to figures published by MPM’s parent company, Mannesmann Demag Krauss-Maffei for the shortened financial year 2001 (30. September). The MPM group takes in injection moulding machinery producers Billion (France), Demag Ergotech and Kraus-Maffei (Germany), Netstal (Switzerland) und Van Dorn Demag (USA), along with extrusion technology specialist Berstorff (Germany).
Pipe producer Uponor feels building industry slump The weak building economy put pressure on sales and earnings of plastic pipes producer Uponor, Finland, in 2001. Adjusted sales decreased by 3.5% to EUR 1.19 bn. Including divestments, turnover receded by 12%. Operating profit declined 19% to EUR 98.2m. Uponor said it expects business to improve in the second half of 2002.
SML Maschinengesellschaft mbH, Austria, has introduced a machine that it says allows the production of high-quality PP film of 100-500 (micro)m in thickness.
The machine uses a technique called Sleeve-Touch Technology. In this process, the vertical melt curtain is cooled down between a seamless steel belt and a chill-roll on a horizontal roll-stack. Low contact pressure on both sides of the film allows the processor to achieve film characteristics that were impossible by means of established production methods, SML claims.
Films produced with the machine display several characteristics:
* high gloss or fully or partly matt surface;
* high transparency and low haze;
* no die lines, as found with cast or blown film;
* low orientation and internal residual stress, especially compared with calendered film;
* good optical properties (no micro-clouds or orange peel effect).
Film produced by the new SML Sleeve-Touch Technology equipment can be either wound or cut in-line into desired sheet sizes, depending on the requirements of subsequent processing methods.
The Sleeve-Touch Technology machine makes a number of principal products:
* folded boxes for consumer products, such as cosmetics;
* stationary products, such as files and folders;
* thermoformed containers and cups for food packaging, also in combination with barrier materials, such as ethylene-vinyl alcohol (EVOH) and polyamide;
* highly transparent lids for re-closable food packaging containers, for instance yoghurt and margarine tubs;
* blister packaging.
SML developed Sleeve-Touch Technology in cooperation with a Japanese partner who has already delivered similar technology on more than 20 production lines in the Far East. SML is now promoting and developing this technology in the European and North American markets for PP film. Future research will be focused on applications with other types of plastic films
A new two-stage extruder system devolatilizes and extrudes wood-filled compounds in one extrusion pass, without needing a drier or a second extruder. The first stage is a preheating and drying section with two short, heated screws and a passive vent. It feeds vertically into a longer twin-screw plasticating and mixing section with three vacuum vents. This is the first extrusion system developed by Coronado Engineering, which typically designs and installs blending and compounding plants. Coronado delivered its first extruder system in May and has five more on order. The new system increases the volume of melt exposed to devolatilizing by designing screws with deeper roots for longer residence time. The system has 34:1 L/D, including both sections, but devolatilizes the same amount of melt as a 42:1 conventional extruder, Coronado says. It can extrude foamed or unfoamed wood-filled PVC, PP, and PE at up to 1200 lb/hr.