Strictly-Extrusion

On November 26th 2003, Unicor Rahn Plastmaschinen demonstrated to 45 European visitors the newly developed UC100, the first corrugator of a new and innovative machinery generation. This new corrugating technique again demonstrates Unicor’s claim to leadership as a machine building company on the world market, according to Managing Director Mr Klaus Kaufmann. This development positions Unicor to face the challenges of future years as well as the coming K show. The newly developed corrugator for the production of corrugated and double-wall pipe for diameters between 10 mm and 125 mm. For the 45 visitors at Unicor, experienced in the field of plastic pipe technology, the technical features of the machine were decisive. In contrast to previous machines the production quantity can be increased by 45% without losing product quality. This corresponds to a production speed of 22 m/min compared to 15 m/min of current speed for a double-wall pipe with a diameter of 110 mm. To achieve such performance some basic problems had to be solved, resulting in the filing of six patents thus demonstrating the demand on such improvements.

Austrian pipe producer Pipelife International has acquired the European PVC pipe business of Germany’s Drossbach for an undisclosed sum.
The deal includes machinery from Drossbach’s Rain am Lech plant and the European customer book.
Guillaume Bucco, chief operating officer for Pipelife’s west region, said production lines will be moved to sites at Bad Zwischenahn in Germany and Flevolaan in the Netherlands.
Drossbach will retain its machinery manufacture and PE/PP pipe production businesses. No staff will transfer to Pipelife.
Bucco said the acquisition will reinforce Pipelife’s lead in the market for agricultural drainage pipe, as well as bring additional business in road drainage products.
Pipelife is a joint venture between Solvay and Wienerberger. It is one of the world’s leading plastic pipe manufacturers with sales of E566m last year.

A new extruder from Davis-Standard, the Euro Blue, has been engineered to meet the price, performance and availability requirements of the European marketplace. The CE-marked machine features an easily accessible and ergonomic design and offers processors a competitively priced option with fast delivery. Shipment is available as quickly as two weeks from the order date. The
Euro Blue is offered in 50mm, 65mm, 75mm and 90mm sizes, and is ideal for custom profile and tubing processes as well as basic wire and cable and film applications.
“The Euro Blue is based on the engineering of our widely accepted Super Blue™ extruder, but has been styled and equipped to meet the requirements of our European customers,” said Gerhard Folie, Davis-Standard business manager. “We wanted to build an extruder specific to Europe that provides the best value and availability for that market.”
Design advantages include a sloped front panel with full machine access; 400/3/50 voltage requirements; a low noise, high torque double-reduction gearbox; cast aluminum finned heaters bolted to the barrel to ensure barrel-to-heater contact; a brushless AC drive and motor; and a high capacity, highly efficient air cooling system. The Euro Blue is assembled on a rigid base with structural steel construction. It has a wear-resistant bimetallic barrel designed for 700 bar operating pressure with a removable barrel flange, rupture disc and pressure transducer behind the front flange for operator safety. A variety of feedscrew designs for different thermoplastic materials are available.
For more information about the Euro Blue, contact Gerhard Folie at
Davis-Standard’s facility in Erkrath, Germany at gfolie@davis-standard.com or
49-211-2404-0.

UK building plastics group Heywood Williams is to sell its US pipe extrusion business Bristolpipe to Westlake Chemical Corp for US$33m. The group also announced that five senior managers had left the company as “certain head office functions have been rationalised”. Chief executive Robert Barr said: “My aim is to establish a smaller, more operationally focused executive team.” Bristolpipe extrudes PVC and ABS pipe products at three manufacturing facilities in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Georgia. It has a turnover of US$114m and approximately 200 employees. HW said the business was highly cyclical and was up against strong competition from vertically-integrated operators. The sale, subject to shareholder approval, will leave HW virtually debt-free.

Novel polymer chemistry in new thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) elastomers from Teknor Apex provides greater long-term resistance to heat and solvents than conventional TPV compounds, higher tensile strength, and better long-term elastic recovery, it was announced today by the company’s Thermoplastic Elastomer Division.

In comparative tests by Teknor Apex, the elastic recovery properties of conventional TPVs (measured by compression set) deteriorated by 20 to 50% after long-term exposure at 125 deg. C, while new Uniprene (R) XL compounds exhibited a change of only 5%. The new TPVs also exhibited substantially lower weight gain after over 500 hours of immersion in IRM 903 oil at 125 deg. C. Their tensile strength values were typically 10 to 20% greater.

‘Uniprene XL compounds are even more rubber-like than conventional TPVs, enabling processors to meet more stringent requirements for dynamic components that undergo repeated flexure or for applications in aggressive end-use environments,’ said Tonya McBride, sales engineer. ‘Unlike specialty TPVs that cost many dollars per pound more than conventional TPV compounds, the new XL series provides enhanced performance at only a small premium.’

Uniprene XL compounds can be extruded or injection molded and are readily colored. Currently available grades span the Shore A hardness range from 45 to 80. Suggested applications include seals, plugs, grommets, and mechanical components; automotive tubing and bellows; glazing strips, weather seals, and expansion joints; and electrical insulators.

Innovative Chemistry Includes Unique Two-Phase Cross Linking

Development of Uniprene XL compounds was described in a paper delivered at Antec 2004 by Teknor Apex scientists Jushik Yun, Raman Patel, and Darnell C. Worley II.

Conventional TPVs, including standard Uniprene grades developed and sold by Teknor Apex, typically consist of EPDM rubber domains dispersed in a polypropylene (PP) matrix, with cross linking of the EPDM providing more rubber-like properties than are available with thermoplastic elastomer blends not subjected to cross linking. In developing Uniprene XL compounds, Teknor Apex replaced EPDM with a modified hydrogenated styrene block copolymer (HSBC).

‘As with conventional TPVs, the ’soft segment’ of Uniprene XL compounds takes the form of spherical, micro-sized [0.5- to 2.0-micron] domains of cross linked rubber,’ said Dr. Yun. ‘Within the soft-segment domains of cross linked HSBC, however, are nano-sized domains consisting of polystyrene hard segments that also act as cross links. It is this dual-network morphology that provides the long-term compression set consistency and solvent resistance that distinguish Uniprene XL TPVs.’

Other high-performance TPVs on the market are based on nylon/polyacrylate, nylon/silicone, and copolyester elastomer formulations. While prices for these engineering TPVs range up to (USD) $10.00 a pound, Teknor Apex expects to offer Uniprene XL compounds at selling prices which are substantially lower.

Borealis has introduced new polypropylene materials which the company claims can be used to make blown film on lines designed for PE film production. The new Borclear and Borsoft materials overcome PP’s traditional drawbacks for the blown film approach through increased melt strength and enhanced cooling and optical properties, the Nordic polyolefin major said.
New grade Borclear RB707CF gives optical properties that have never been achieved before in conventional blown film technology, the group claimed. “Borclear and Borsoft PP-based materials offer blown film converters a unique chance to enter new applications and markets with their current machinery,” said Anton Wolfsberger, marketing manager film and fibre. “Converters now have new options to improve profitability by adding value to their current customers and offering something unique to attract new customers.” Borealis sees applications in stiff packaging film for textiles or foodstuffs, hygiene film, labelling and barrier packaging films. The company will exhibit the new materials on its stand at K2004 in October.

A E200m pipeline to carry propylene between Antwerp and the heart of the German chemical industry in the Ruhr has been given the go-ahead by the EU. Work on the project will now start next year with a target completion date of 2007.
The future of the project has hinged on approval for E45m government subsidies, without which the scheme is not viable. This support has now been endorsed by the Commission. A total of eight companies including BASF, BP, DSM, Sabic, Shell and Celanese are members of the consortium behind the pipeline, which will link a number of steam crackers and smoothe supplies of propylene feedstock in the critical NW Europe area. Half of Europe’s propylene consumption – nearly 15m tonnes – lies within the scope of the new link.
Backers of the scheme say that it will improve the competitive position of the West European industry, boost flexibility and benefit the environment by limiting overground feedstock movements. Demand for propylene feedstock exceeds that for ethylene, driven in part by the growth enjoyed by polypropylene.

Europe’s largest window profile extruder is expected to be sold within the next few weeks. The sale of HT Troplast, currently owned by Rütgers, has been on the table for several months. HT communications manager Rainer Hardtke mentioned that most of the potential buyers are financial investors.
Hardtke said a sale to another profile producer was unlikely, as cartel authorities would find it difficult to approve of such a deal in view of HT Troplast’s size and dominating market position. The company has 3,750 employees, achieved turnover of E640m in 2002 and consumes more than 300,000tpa of plastics.
Rütgers has said it will dispose of its plastics interests within 2004. In April it sold Isola, a producer of copper clad laminates for circuit boards, to financial investor Texas Pacific Group. Deals have yet to be concluded for HT Troplast and thermoset resin and compound maker Bakelite. Rütgers decided to sell HT after a decade of ownership to finance its purchase of chemicals company Degussa from the utility Eon.

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 with information on the annual volume of their composite scrap, their interest (if any) in recovering the non-vinyl substrate, and their willingness to buy back the recovered compound at 70 to 80% of the original cost.

‘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 .

A new underwater granulation system can cut the cost of producing bottle grade PET granulate by E25/tonne or more, Kreyenborg’s BKG division has claimed. The company’s CrystallCut system uses a number of special features to obtain a minimum 45% degree of crystallisation, high viscosity and low acetaldehyde content directly after polycondensation. It eliminates the usual subsequent solid state polycondensation (SSP) pre-crystallisation process. The granulator uses hot water at above 90°C and a special arrangement of cutting blades and the granulator’s nozzle plates. It can also be used to recycle PET scrap. The company was not prepared to give further technical details until worldwide patent coverage is obtained within the next few weeks. A 10 tonne/hour CrystallCut plant has been running since early 2004 at a BKG customer.