Edge Building Products Inc., USA, will have a second extrusion site by the end of summer. The firm selected New Holland for the new, 28,000-square foot facility, which will produce Edge´s Duration deck product, made from fiber-reinforced cellular PVC. Edge said it will invest well over US$2 million in the three-year project, which will add 50 employees to its staff of 43.
Klöckner Pentaplast, USA, announced the acquisition of the Petco division of the Lavergne Group, Canada, effective immediately, for an undisclosed sum. Petco extrudes polyester films that are used for food and general-purpose consumer and industrial packaging applications. Petco sales are primarily in Canada and the US. Klöckner Pentaplast will purchase the complete Petco business to include all manufacturing assets associated with the polyester extruded film business, as well as its proprietary product formulations and trade names.
German window profiles manufacturer Gealan increased group sales by 25% in 2003 to EUR 126m and widened volume sales by 13.5% to 42,000 t. The good performance is attributed largely to exports, which account for 65% of sales, but also to brisk sales in the home market. Polish subsidiary Gealan Polska plans to start up its own production facility in Poland this summer.
Cabot Corporation has increased its range of additive masterbatches with a number of new slip, anti-block and combination slip/anti-block grades designed to meet the different requirements of film processors.
Three slip grades — PLASADD„µ PE9020, PE9041 and PE9166 — have been developed to reduce the natural tackiness of polyolefin polymers and so increase their processibility. They incorporate oleamides and erucamides in different quantities to provide a choice of migration speeds and slip performance duration, which enables processors to find a grade to suit their manufacturing processes. All the products comply with food contact regulations, and some are particularly suitable for high-temperature processing.
Three anti-block additives that reduce adhesion between film layers are also available. PLASADD PE9007 and PE9896 contain different levels of natural silica, allowing addition rates between 1 per cent and 5 per cent to be used to suit specific applications. PLASADD PE9050 uses synthetic silica to provide superior anti-block performance without affecting film clarity.
Cabot has also developed three grades that provide slip and anti-block performance in a single product. PLASADD PE8741 is primarily designed as an anti-block agent but also delivers some slip performance, while PE9172 and PE9174 are principally slip masterbatches with some anti-block properties.
The rapid development of Europe’s flexible packaging market has led to an increased demand for multi-layer coextrusion equipment. A rising European population coupled with consumption of fresh produce and chilled “ready meals” are a few factors contributing to this growth. Davis-Standard offers processors a complete line of multi-layer coextrusion technology for films up to nine layers. These systems are designed for processing a range of resins including mLLDPE, EVOH, engineered resins such as PETG and biodegradable resins now used in Europe. Advantages of multi-layer coextrusion include reduced material costs, faster line speeds, improved production efficiencies, enhanced film properties, specialty film capabilities and the ability to enter new markets.
Many of Davis-Standard’s existing and potential customers in Europe and worldwide continue to enquire and seek advice about sophisticated structures that provide them with a marketing edge. This includes technical advice, processing knowledge, pre-production samples and proven capabilities. Davis-Standard’s seven-layer production sized laboratory facility housed in Somerville, New Jersey, USA, is continually used to meet these demands to provide the assurance to enter new markets.
One of the primary advantages of Davis-Standard’s coextrusion technology is processing flexibility. An example is the MAC (Metric Air-Cooled) extruder supplied on all coextrusion film systems. This machine offers excellent melt quality at high outputs with the capacity to process multiple resins using the same feedscrew. The extruder’s powerful cooling system utilizes a single suction blower that draws ambient air over the barrel heater through the plenum base into an exhaust duct. As much as 30 cubic meters of air per minute can be evacuated around the heater for cooling. This provides simple, low maintenance, regulated cooling while reducing the gauge affecting drafts on the bubble.
The company’s die and WesJet™ air ring technology also offer several options. Die mandrels are equipped for a range of rates and viscosities with a low profile arrangement for minimal wetted surface area as well as angular spirals for improved optical properties. In addition, the confluences are located close to the die lip to minimize long polymer flow paths. The WesJet is engineered for high air volumes, performance cooling and bubble stability. The air ring’s unique distribution network uses a lower pressure air stream to maximize cooling and quality. It is also designed to provide easy adjustment and programmability.
Downstream of the die, Davis-Standard offers equipment to match film properties including bubble cages and collapsers, oscillating nip assemblies and associated winder technology. Complete system control is available via discrete controls or totally integrated microprocessor-based systems which include SCADA packages. The most widely used control for multi-layer processes is Davis-Standard’s EPIC III™ touch-screen system. This system is based on a Windows® platform and includes DDE (dynamic data exchange), OPC (object linking and embedding for process control), networking and multi-tasking.
For more information about Davis-Standard’s multi-layer, coextrusion film technology in Europe, contact Andrew Barnes at abarnes@davis-standard.com.
Kreyenborg, Germany, has expanded its product range to infrared dryers (IRD), using its own patented technology, which uses the energy of infrared rays to dry material such as plastics. The company will manufacture and continuously develop the entire range of dryers in-house. Kreyenborg says the use of infrared rays is considerably cheaper than hot-air drying. It will show its entire product range at K 2004.
Dow Corning has announced that its Multibase production centre at Saint Laurent du Pont has been awarded the ISO/TS 16949:2002 automotive quality certification. This achievement confirms the company’s total commitment to meet the highest standards as a leading global supplier of differentiated Thermoplastic Elastomer materials to the automotive industry.
This is the first of Dow Corning’s sites to receive the award, which supercedes the QS 9000 accreditation it already holds, and the company is working to accomplish the same accreditation for each of its sites that serve the automotive industry.
TS 16949, an international ISO standard, is the new quality standard for the auto industry that will eventually replace the QS 9000 standard. The ISO/TS 16949 quality system has been jointly developed by members of the International Automotive Task Force. This body comprises vehicle manufacturers and their respective trade associations in France, Germany, Italy, UK and USA.
The specification embodies the automotive quality system requirements of the whole group and, together with customer-specific demands, it defines the quality system requirements for use in the automotive supply chain. It stands together with ISO 9001:2000 accreditation, which a company must have in order to achieve ISO/TS 16949:2002 certification.
“Obtaining certification was customer driven in that we are committed to automotive business and, as one of the world’s leading elastomer suppliers to the industry, we see ourselves very much as part of its quest for quality, excellence and innovation,” says Giorgio Cabrini, Operations Manager Europe, Engineered Elastomers Industry .
“We decided that upgrading to ISO/TS 16949:2002 quality standard, which aligns the existing automotive quality system requirements within the industry based on the global ISO 9001:2000 standard, was the way forward and represented a natural progression of our own internal quality-driving programs,” he adds: “ISO/TS 16949 certification gives confidence to our customers and suppliers in our ability to manage our processes to deliver solutions that precisely meet the automotive industry’s needs.”
Multibase is integral to Dow Corning’s global Engineered Elastomer Industry (EEI). Through its Silastic® silicone elastomers. Multiflex® and TPSiV™ thermoplastic elastomers, Dow Corning can deliver the broadest range of globally supported automotive solutions. With property profiles that can be tailored to fulfill the complete spectrum of criteria, from soft, flexible feel to strong hard compounds with chemical, temperature and abrasion resistance, Dow Corning’s Engineered Elastomer solutions can meet the needs of the most stringent automotive applications.
Giorgio Cabrini adds: “To meet certification requirements the introduction of new procedures into the Multibase production quality system did not involve us in major changes. The new standard is more customer-focused and its structure is based on process management philosophy but we were already operating to a number of very high process standards, most of which are incorporated in the new certificate.”
Multibase (www.multibase.com), a Dow Corning company, is a leading global supplier of differentiated Thermoplastic Elastomer materials and solutions. Multibase’s headquarters is located in France with manufacturing facilities in the US, France and India, and commercial offices around the world.
Reifenhäuser has received the first two orders in Asia for blown film lines made at its new plant in Suzhou, China, due to be officially opened on 1 July.
Announcing the news at a K show preview last week, chairman Ulrich Reifenhäuser said he planned to sell six plants in the first year of business and 25 in the third year.He said the aim was to recover the company’s old three-layer blown film business in both China and the rest of Asia by making a standard plant with add-on options “while we remain in the market with premium machines made in Germany”.
Ulrich Reifenhäuser also put for the first time a 30%-40% lower price tag on the machines than for the same type of machinery made in Germany. However, he stressed, “We won’t export to Europe at this stage.” While the intended Asian markets stretched as far as India, he left open the possibility of countries such as Egypt, Russia and Brazil being supplied “at some stage” from the plant in China.
The consumption of plastic films in Russia annually totals more than 252,000 tonnes and is continuously rising, according to Abercade Consulting, a market research group of Moscow.
Polypropylene holds the largest share at around 29%, followed by multi-layer and combined films at 21.4%, polyethylene at 18% and PVC at 13.3%. Though paper still is ahead of plastics with 61% share of packaging consumption, compared to 22.6% for plastics, the consultants feel that the market has great potential.
It is reported that the producers in Russia are increasing their capacities for BOPP films, polystyrene and PET bottle chips.
A study by Teknor Apex could lead to construction of a U.S. plant for recovering high-quality flexible vinyl compound from wire and cable, coated fabric, and other composites that until now have defied efforts to separate and recover the constituent materials economically, it was announced today by Teknor Apex.
The study, to be completed by the end of 2004, will determine if the resource stream of scrap composites and the number of customers for recovered compound are sufficiently great to warrant a U.S. venture to implement Solvay’s Vinyloop (R) technology. This process dissolves the vinyl, separates it from other materials, and precipitates the regenerated compound in the form of micro-granules containing PVC resin and additives like plasticizers and stabilizers. The compound can be pelletized for an added cost.
‘Properties of flexible vinyl recovered by the Vinyloop process are nearly identical to those of the original formulation,’ said Peter M. Galland, Vinyloop project manager for Teknor Apex. ‘In addition, the process could be employed to recover and recycle in pure form any non-vinyl substrate that is comprised of only one material and has reuse value.’
Teknor Apex is seeking input from potential participants who could supply annual resource streams in excess of 250,000 pounds of the vinyl component and would buy back the recovered vinyl at 70 to 80% of the original cost. Besides wire and cable companies, likely participants would include manufacturers of products as diverse as automotive instrument panel skins, wall coverings, and flooring.
Interested participating companies should contact Galland at pgalland@teknorapex.com
‘A Vinyloop plant in the U.S. could solve the scrap-disposal problems faced by many manufacturers of vinyl composite products and do so in a way that actually helps them reduce their raw material costs,’ Galland said. ‘At the same time, it could enable these companies to
address important social concerns about resource conservation and elimination of landfill.’
Solvay developed the Vinyloop process in the 1990s and in 2002 started up the first plant based on the process in Ferrara, Italy. This demonstration facility has a nominal annual capacity to recover approximately 19 million lb. (8,500 metric tons) of vinyl compound from a composite waste stream of 22 million lb. (10,000 tons). Recently Solvay and a venture partner in Japan announced plans to build a commercial-scale Vinyloop plant in that country, with startup planned for 2005.
For more information on the Vinyloop process, visit www.vinyloop.com