BP’s Innovene technology is to be used in an expansion of the Dushanzi Petrochemical Company’s polyethylene plant in Northwest China. The new project, expected to be complete in 2002, will increase plant capacity by 40,000 tonnes to 190,000 tonnes a year. The plant started in 1995 with a capacity of 120,000 tonnes and a current programme to increase capacity to 150,000 tonnes should also be completed next year.
Crompton Technology Group, until recently Crompton Plastics, has acquired the filament winding business of AEA Technology. The deal involves the transfer of technology and plant from the AEA Technology composites manufacturing facility at Harwell. It also brings CTG into the motor sport world with the transfer of existing customers in Formula 1, GT, Touring Cars and World Rally Championship teams.
Solvay is to set up a joint venture PVC compound plant with Vladimir Chemical Plant in Russia, making it the first Western PVC producer to set up shop in Russia. The joint venture, which will be owned 51 per cent by Solvay, will produce around 15,000 tonnes a year of rigid compound for the window frame/wall cladding markets. In a further stage the two companies envisage producing soft PVC compounds for the Russian automotive industry.
MY Holdings, which acquired two ex-Borden Inc. extrusion and thermoforming plants in Britain from AEP Industries Inc. in 1998, is closing one plant and cutting about 220 jobs. Management at MY Plastics Ltd. in Edinburgh blamed British supermarkets for changing the style of their packaging, a union official said. But workers say the company wants to sell the prime land for commercial development.
Two proprietary thermoplastic elastomer technologies with improved oil resistance and electrical conductivity have been developed by Optatech Corp., Finland. Optatech sells the products through its subsidiary Optaplast Ltd. and is also negotiating with several companies to license the technology. Pacrel is a new type of TPV consisting of a polyolefin matrix (PP, EVA, or ethylene acrylate) and a dispersed, crosslinked polyacrylate rubber phase. It boasts superior oil resistance, excellent uv and ozone resistance, excellent flex- fatigue resistance, soft-touch feel and good adhesion without primers to urethane-acrylate paints and to polyolefins. It reportedly blends well with SEBS to provide oil resistance even better than that of PP/EPDM TPVs. Optatech also offers permanently conductive TPEs based on blends of doped polyaniline and a TPV such as Pacrel, PP/EPDM or SEBS/PP. Volume resistivity of 1000 ohm-cm can be achieved with 20% addition of doped polyaniline. These patented elastomers are said to retain their elastic properties because the co-continuous phase of doped polyaniline is also flexible. (For more information, visit www.optatech.fi.)
Polyethylene bag and packaging film maker A-Pac Manufacturing Co. is creating a new blown film business in Walker. Eagle Film Extruders Inc. will support converters including A-Pac. Construction should be complete by June on a 9,000-square-foot next to A-Pac´s site. The Eagle plant will feature a Varex extrusion line that should be operational by August.
Conventional two-stage single screws for processing PET powder typically have an internal vent channel, but now the concept has been applied to a barrier screw. Recently patented by Eastman Kodak Co., USA (U.S. Patent No. 6,164,810, issued Dec. 26, 2000), the screw design has a small vent hole located within about two diameters from the end of the feed section, between a pumping and barrier flight. It vents volatiles out the back of the screw through an axial bore. Walls in the flow channel divert polymer so it does not flow into the small single vent hole. This design can be used to process PET powder into film. Before now, barrier screws were used only with PET pellets, not powder, because pellets let volatiles escape back out the feed throat. Eastman’s vented barrier screw reportedly permits higher throughputs of PET powder. The vented barrier screw can also be used for other hygroscopic resins like ABS.
VPI Mirrex Corp. has completed a US$5 million equipment upgrade at its Delaware City headquarters plant. The calendering and slitting equipment upgrades will boost capacity and sales at the PVC film manufacturer by 5 per cent, according to the company. The company also is gaining the ability to make shrink labels in-line.
PSI-Polymer Systems Inc., formerly Wil-Man America Inc., has expanded its production at a 3,000-square-foot factory to make screen changers and related products in Hickory. PSI makes screen changers, divert valves, foam sheet dies and ancillary equipment. Ist continuous-operation screen changer uses a design that allows for screen changes without interruption of melt flow.
GE Plastics has purchased the polycarbonate extrusion assets of Matra Plast Industries, a maker of solid, multi-wall and corrugated polycarbonate sheet products. The acquisition includes facilities, equipment, inventory, intellectual property and other assets associated with the 250,000-sq-ft Long Sault plant, which employs 63 people. GE Plastics plans to retain Matra Plast’s Verolite and Vistar sheet trade names and will continue to offer the
product lines through current distribution channels. Verolite and Vistar products are used in greenhouses, signs and other architectural and construction applications.