E-Weekly
Jul 7th, 2007                                Print this article

E-Weekly News Briefs July 2-6

By Modern Plastics Editorial Staff

RFID packaging demand to grow

The global remote frequency identification (RFID) tag market (including non-packaging applications) is anticipated to increase from $4.96 billion in 2007 to $11.4 billion by 2010, and then nearly triple to $27.9 billion by 2017, according to IDTechEx. RFID labels are forecast to represent $1.1 billion and $6.2 billion of these totals in 2007 and 2010 respectively, with packaging representing 20% of that total market, according to the latest report from Piper Jaffray & Co. (Minneapolis, MN). RFID in packaging applications allows for tracking of fixed corporate assets and/or inventory at various points in manufacturing and the supply chain.

“There continues to be bullish sentiment for RFID technology, however the high transitional cost and concern over reaching ROI hurdles has been a deterrent in industry-wide adoption,” said the report. “Prices for RFID labels have dropped over the last two years (declining from $0.50 cents to about $0.20 cents). Prices are expected to continue to drop as demand and production volume increase and the technology evolves.”

The pharmaceutical packaging sector is “one bright spot” where RFID is seeing more “robust activity.” With counterfeiting a huge issue (an estimated 10% of the world’s drugs are counterfeit, according to the U.S. FDA), lawmakers are looking to RFID for its tracking and error-proofing capabilities. “Although the FDA has recommended that all drugs be RFID-tagged within two years, adoption continues to lag as the FDA has put little effort to enforce implementation.”

Cardinal Health announced in May that it will integrate RFID into the operations of its Sacramento, CA pharmaceutical distribution center. Packaging giant Rexam teamed up with RFID specialist Traxxec to develop RFID-tagged pill bottles.

Plastics conference scene in M.E. expands

The importance industry observers are giving the Middle East as a polymer production center is evidenced by a new conference in Dubai next February to be organized by Maack Business Services (Au, Switzerland). The decision by polymer producer Sabic (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) to enter the engineering thermoplastics (ETP) business by acquiring GE Plastics [July 2007 MPW pg. 56] has generated new interest in use of such materials in this region. The two-day conference from February 18-19 in Dubai, U.A.E., to be called Tech Plast Dubai 2008, will concentrate on applications using ABS, acrylic, polycarbonate, acetal, blends, and fluoropolymers for applications in appliances, household products, building and construction, as well as electrical and electronic parts, according to conference organizer Horst Maack.

Delivering the keynote opening speech will be Sabic’s Mosaed Al Ohali, VP of the specialty plastics business unit. Sabic is also onboard as the event’s major sponsor. Two months later, Maack Business Services will hold its 11th Plast Pro conference in Dubai, from April 7-9, with that event concentrating on polyolefins and dividing sessions among packaging, labeling, and product presentation, with a separate track addressing plastics pipe and water-management materials such as geomembranes. Sabic again is the major sponsor of that event.

ICL snags Supresta

Moving on a product that is benefiting from greater regulation of its competitors, Israel Chemicals Ltd. (Tel-Aviv) has purchased Supresta LLC, which claims to be the world’s largest producer of phosphorus-based flame retardants, for $352 million. Supresta was established in 2004 after being purchased from the chemicals unit of Akzo Nobel by private equity firm, Ripplewood Holdings LLC. Supresta has more than 300 employees spread between two facilities in the U.S. and Germany, and it produces 80 phosphorus-based products, ranging from polyurethane foam flame retardants to plasticizers.

ICL says the move will diversify its flame retardant portfolio, which currently consists of bromine-based products, some of which have garnered the attention of regulatory bodies, including the WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) directive. ICL operates the world’s largest elemental bromine production plant at the Dead Sea, with 250,000 tons/yr of capacity, accounting for approximately 35% of world bromine production.

Competitor Albemarle Corp. (Baton Rouge, LA) recently announced capacity expansions for its Magnifin magnesium hydroxide flame retardants, adding 20,000 tonnes/yr of production to its Breitenau, Austria facility. Albemarle also announced plans to expand Martinal fine precipitated aluminum trihydrate production capacity at its Bergheim, Germany-based site by 20,000 tonnes/yr.

LME goes regional

On June 25, the London Metal Exchange (LME) began trading of regional futures contracts for polypropylene (PP) and linear low density polyethylene (LL) so that in addition to a global price for each contract, prices are now established and published by the LME for Asia, North America, and Europe, bringing the total number of LME plastics contracts to eight.

In addition, the LME initiated ‘spot’ trading via a daily prompt dates, which mirror its non-ferrous metals model. In a release, the LME said regional contracts would reflect global variations in the use and trade of plastics. The contracts, deliverable in bags, were launched in Asia, Europe, and North America, with contract specifications and delivery points for each regional contract remaining identical to their existing equivalent global contract.

Neil Banks, LME director of exchange development said in a statement, “The value of the enhancements will not be seen overnight. However, over time it is hoped that they will significantly improve the liquidity in the contracts and therefore their wider use by the global plastics industry.”

New PA grade targets online auto painting

During its pre-K show press event on July 3, plastics supplier BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany) announced it will unveil, at the K show, Ultramid TOP 3000, an impact-modified mineral-filled partially-aromatic polyamide (PA) that it says has drawn great interest from automotive OEMs keen on the material’s ability to go through paint lines with metal parts, even at temperatures above 200°C (392°F).

Jörg Schnorr, application development automotive interior/exterior at BASF, offered few details. He said the mineral filling is about 10% by weight but declined to identify the material used. He did allow that the material is marketed as a direct competitor to GE Plastics’ Noryl PPE/PA66 compounds, with a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) well below that of other plastics targeted at exterior automotive body panels, as well as improvements in stiffness, thermal stability, and processability. Schnorr said the material offers weight and cost advantages compared to metal, as well as increased design freedom, and it has reportedly proven itself in a variety of different coating lines under different conditions.

Wollastonite supplier Nyco acquired

Nyco (Willsboro, NY) and its subsidiaries and affiliated companies have been acquired by Resource Capital Funds (RCF) IV LP. RCF private equity funds are headquartered in Denver, CO and Perth, Australia and invest exclusively in mining companies. Under the new ownership, Jay Moroney returns to Nyco as its president and CEO, a position he held between 1990 and 1998. “Our immediate focus will be to assure our customers that Nyco will continue operating as the world’s leading wollastonite supplier,” Moroney said. “In addition, our attention will be directed towards developing new products and next generation surface modifications, plant capitalization projects that will improve quality and yields, as well as strategic logistic options to allow re-entry into a number of worldwide markets”. RCF has retained all current employees of Nyco and plans to expand its professional staffing, particularly in finance, technology and sales.

Barkston bets big on laser welding

Barkston Plastics Engineering Ltd. (Leeds, England) has invested almost $3 million in laser-welding facilities. The investment is a move to reduce the cost of production to rival Far East import prices and also to place the fabricator in position to participate successfully in future markets like fuel cells and fluidic devices. Laser welding uses near-infrared energy to generate heat and produce a weld between two substrates. Stated benefits in comparison to traditional welding processes include increased reliability of the seal; improved appearance of the component; low mechanical and thermal stress; and three-dimensional contour joins.

Barkston claims to be the only company worldwide currently capable of offering laser welding subcontracting facilities on a commercial basis on products up to a size of 2m² by 1m high, and in 25-mm thick material. As a result, the company has already been commissioned to begin work on projects including creating polypropylene tanks to be used in lithographic printing; producing visors for the medical and nuclear industry; and developing fuel cells.

Barkston has also become the U.K. distributor of Clearweld, a development of Gentex Corp. (Carbondale, PA) for joining transparent or opaque thermoplastics via weldable coatings or resins to give an invisible finish. During Clearweld, a thin layer of absorbent material, developed by Gentex, is placed between the parts to be joined. The absorbent material absorbs laser light and heats the substrates to form an instant weld with no particulate or visible color. The Barkston Group includes Barkston Plastics Ltd. and Barkston Plastics Engineering Ltd. It has 85 employees and annual turnover in excess of $16 million.

Quadrant CMS to double output

Quadrant Creative Molding & Systems’ (CMS) “Follow-the-Customer” strategy with power tool OEM Bosch Power Tools, which took it to Hungary, is paying off. A year ago, Quadrant CMS, headquartered in Tielt, Belgium, expanded its custom molding facility in Szigetzszentmiklos, Hungary. In June, Quadrant CMS announced that it is about to double the Hungarian facility to further increase the production capacity of this injection molding facility by the end of 2007.

Production at the plant has increased significantly in recent months, principally as a result of Quadrant CMS’ success in the region. While originally established to serve Bosch Power Tools’ nearby assembly plant in Miskolc, Hungary, demand has increased from many of the Tier One automotive companies based in the region, according to Quadrant CMS.

Customers in the region now include Valeo, TI Automotive, and Autoliv. Typical components molded and assembled by Quadrant CMS will include airbag housings, fuel-system parts, and lighting-system products.

“Our decision to build a new facility close to our customers was positively received and has been rewarded with further business growth and commitment from the market,” said Peter van Damme, CEO of Quadrant CMS. “With many new programs in development for implementation during 2007 and the years beyond, this pace of growth is increasing. This makes it necessary to expand the capacity, both in terms of machinery and manpower, at the site.”

Included in the expansion plans are the addition of Krauss-Maffei and Engel injection molding machines, ranging from 25 to 400 tons, and the employment of more workers at the site in line with the additional activity. The facility has recently obtained its ISO-TS16949 certification, which specifies the quality system requirements for the co-development and production of automotive related products.

PolymerOhio receives grant

On the basis of its importance to the local economy, where it employs 140,000, the PolymerOhio program will receive $500,000 in state funding in fiscal year 2008 as Ohio’s eight Edison Center for technology and innovation. Ohio’s Industry, Technology, and Enterprise Advisory Council (ITEAC) approved Polymer Ohio for Edison status, with the program joining BioOhio, the Center for Innovative Food Technologies, the Materials Technology Center, Edison Welding Institute, the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, IT Alliance, and TechSolve. PolymerOhio describes itself as an industry-networking group focused on enhancing the global competitiveness and growth of Ohio’s plastics, rubber, and advanced materials industries via a range of value-added programs and services.

European plastics distribution outpaces market growth

Growth of plastics distribution is said to now average more than 6%/yr, at least twice the growth rate for the broader industry in Europe as a whole, according to a new study by AMI Consulting (Bristol, England). In some sectors, distribution is said to grow even faster than these figures. European plastics distributors sold more than 4,000,000 tonnes of polyolefins, styrenics, and some engineering polymers in 2006, representing 13% of the total European market for these polymers.

More than 200 distributors across the EU-25 region are profiled in the new report available at www.amiplastics.com. Last year, plastics distribution in Europe accounted for about €5.9 billion in actual revenues from plastics costing about €5.25 billion. According to AMI, the largest revenues are for polypropylene, followed by nylon.

Dow exhibits Hyperlast PU pipeline coating in Brazil

Dow Polyurethane Systems exhibited its Hyperlast spray- and cast-elastomer pipeline coating systems at Brazil Offshore 2007 (June 19-22; Macae, Brazil). Dow acquired the Hyperlast PU systems business from British firm Vita on May 2, expanding its spray and cast elastomer portfolio for the marine, engineering resin, and oil and gas pipeline industries.

Hyperlast spray and cast elastomers for marine and offshore applications reportedly offer strong performance in submarine thermal insulation and shock protection for deepwater flow-lines and field-joints at depths of up to 10,000 ft, subsea configurations, anchor blocks, bends, goosenecks, jumpers, risers, and wellheads. The products also provide marine impact and climate protection for underwater sensors, electrical connections, fenders, buoys, rope coating, surface and submerged structures.

Insulation demand rising

Worldwide consumption of thermal and acoustical insulation materials is projected to expand 3.6% per year through 2011 to 20.2 billion sq m of R-1 value, according to a new study released by The Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industry research firm. In dollar terms demand for insulation materials will expand to more than $33 billion, reflecting both gains in volume demand and rising prices. The most rapid rates of growth will continue to be recorded in the developing countries of Asia, boosted building construction activity and products that incorporate insulation materials, such as refrigerators. Demand for insulation in China will also benefit from government initiatives to encourage more energy-efficient building construction.

Slowing residential construction in the U.S. and Canada will limit insulation gains in new construction. However, a rebound in nonresidential construction and improvements in industrial and OEM markets will lead to an acceleration of insulation demand for North America through 2011. In Western Europe, insulation demand will accelerate from the 2001-2006 period as European Union directives on energy conservation spur demand for insulation in new and retrofit applications. An expanding Japanese economy will support increased demand for insulation in construction markets.

Foamed plastic insulation will continue to account for the largest portion of total demand in dollar terms through 2011. Fiberglass insulation, while becoming more widely used, will remain concentrated in the relatively slow-growing North American market.

Slow death for fast track

Initiated in 1974, so-called fast-track trade negotiating, which limits congressional debate on proposed trade agreements, ended its last five-year term on June 30 without reinstatement, signaling a possible shift in trade negotiations that could slow the adoption of future agreements. Hailed by certain business groups, including the U.S. Business & Industry Council (USBIC; Washington, DC), the cessation of fast track is viewed as relief for embattled U.S. manufacturers. The USBIC is pushing Congress to leave fast track off the books as the country engages in the Doha Round of global trade negotiations.

Although the U.S. has remained a net exporter of resins, imports of plastic products, especially so-called contained plastics, where a plastic component is part of a finished good, have exploded in recent years. In a pair of reports, the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI; Washington) found that plastic exports and imports increased in 2005, 13.6%, and 18.5% respectively, with China and Mexico the largest trading partners (see e-Weekly March 16, 2007 for initial report).

The overall trade surplus fell from $2.82 billion in 2004 to $1.68 billion in 2005, with Canada accounting for 32% of the $37 billion in imports and China 19%. The U.S. shipped $2.4 billion into China in 2005, with resins making up approximately $1.7 billion, while China shipped $7.5 billion into the U.S. in 2005, with the vast majority, $6.9 billion, coming in plastic products. In a preview of 2006 data, SPI reported that exports were up 12.3% to $43.4 billion, with trade surplus hitting $3.68 billion.

According to the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Arlington, VA) mid-year economic report, 2007 U.S. exports of chemistry products, which includes plastics, should rise more than 15% to $155.5 billion. Imports are projected to increase 11.3% to $159.0 billion, resulting in a chemistry trade deficit that will dip from $7.8 billion in 2006 to $3.5 billion in 2007.

Wind power research picks up speed

Wind turbines, which are gaining traction as a source of renewable energy, are becoming a focus of research dollars, with portions of the money linked to the composite materials used for blade construction. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL; Golden, CO) just announced a research agreement with Denmark’s Risø National Laboratory at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) to improve wind-energy technologies. In addition to wind-turbine structures and materials, the researchers will focus on more efficient systems, covering meteorology, aerodynamics, control systems, and electrical-grid integration.

In addition, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced that Massachusetts and Texas would receive federal money to support wind-technology testing centers. The $20-million projects will each receive $2 million from the DOE to create large-scale wind-blade testing centers. In Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the University of Massachusetts, and the port authority will construct a center in Boston Harbor. In Texas, the Lone Star Wind Alliance will build a test facility in Ingleside, TX, with several universities, state agencies, and industrial players, including Dow Chemical and Huntsman, involved. One goal is the creation and testing of 330-ft long blades, with longer blades offering more efficient conversion of wind into electricity.

Names in the News

Todd Prey is the new VP plastics at Dow Automotive (Auburn Hills, MI)—part of Dow Chemical (Midland, MI). He is responsible for developing and implementing a global strategy for this business unit. He has been with Dow since 2001.

Mold-component and hot runner supplier D-M-E (Madison Heights, MI) has hired Ron Cosby as a field sales representative to cover South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Cosby has worked at several firms in his 30-year plastics career, coming to D-M-E from Avalon Vision Solutions, where he managed southeast sales.

Plastic Technologies Inc. (Holland, OH) announced that Ron Purvak joined the company as director of marketing and sales for the New Business Development group. In this role, he will be responsible for analyzing market opportunities for new technologies and products developed by PTI. He was formerly the business development director at AGR International, involved with launching many new container testing devices. He was also instrumental in the development of the PETWall System which AGR licenses from PTI. PTI provides design, prototyping, and analytical testing services to the plastic packaging industry.

Rohm and Haas announced a series of moves, including having Patrice Barthelmes relinquish his role as European Region Director to focus wholly on his primary position as group VP packaging and building materials. Barthelmes took on the European position on an interim basis in January of this year. VP of primary materials, Gray Wirth, will move to Switzerland and oversee Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Carol Eicher, who is the general manager of packaging and building materials in North America, will become VP and business director for primary materials, with Clive Grannum assuming Eicher’s old position.

Following moves at its North American operation, automotive OEM Toyota had more changes globally, naming Tadashi Arashima as a senior managing director of Toyota Motor Corp. (TMC), placing him on TMC’s board of directors as chief officer, Europe & Africa Operations Group. He will continue to manage Toyota#146;s European operations as president and CEO of Toyota Motor Europe (TME). Didier Leroy has been named a managing officer of TMC. Now, in addition to his current role as president, Toyota Motor Manufacturing France (TMMF), he will assume other responsibilities as an executive VP of TME. At Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey (TMMT), Tamer Ünlü was appointed president and CEO, replacing Kazuhiro Kobayashi, who will return to Japan. Toyota directly and indirectly employs approximately 55,000 people in Europe and has invested more than €6 billion since 1990, selling 1,124,119 Toyota and Lexus vehicles there in 2006.

Davis-Standard’s (D-S; Pawcatuck, CT) Extrusion Systems Group has added Tom Brown and Jeff Hedegore as field sales engineers for its aftermarket department. Brown returns to D-S, most recently working with American Kuhne. Hedegore spent the last four years at Spirex.

Following the opening of its new facility in Letterkenny, Ireland, Zeus Inc., a processor of high-end plastic extrusions, has named John Gray as its international director of sales. Prior to joining Zeus, Gray was the VP global marketing and sales at Minntech in Plymouth, MN, a medical products manufacturer.

Glenn Marx has joined Progressive Components’ sales team as Northeast sales manager. Based in Cleveland, he comes to Progressive (Wauconda, IL) with experience and will work with customers as a moldmaking facility lead man, foreman and supervisor, a purchasing agent, general manager and shop owner. He has worked mainly with plastic injection molds, but has also been involved with progressive stamping dies, jigs, fixtures, and other tooling supportive of production manufacturing. Also joining Progressive are Lou Grupe as engineering manager, with a goal of helping development of new and improved products for tooling; and David Arias as technical customer service specialist.

Briefs

Polyolefins producer Basell (Hoofddorp, Netherlands) will stop producing polypropylene (PP) at its plant in Sarnia, ON next year, shuttering a site in operation since 1978. Michael Mulrooney, president of Basell North America says annual production in Sarnia averaged only 100,000 tonnes in the last two years, “and the reality is that the operating costs there are no longer competitive.” Basell currently operates two PP lines in Bayport, TX and is in the process of re-starting a third line there. It also has two PP lines in Lake Charles, LA and one in Varennes, QC. Along with its joint-venture partner Indelpro, it will start up a new 350,000 tonnes/yr capacity PP plant in Altamira, Mexico early next year.

Polyrema, a member of the Reifenhäuser group of companies (Troisdorf, Germany), is delivering 15 blown-film lines to the HIPF (Higher Institute for Plastic Fabrication) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia [May 2007 MPW pg. 12] this year. The lines, designed for training purposes, include side gusseting, a pre-treating unit with segment electrodes, and a one-color flexographic printing press. A winder for the center is provided with web tension and winding tension control as well as automatic reel change for rolls up to 800 mm diameter.

Engineering plastics compounder Bada (Bühl/Baden, Germany) has installed three ZSK MEGAcompounder Plus extruders lines from equipment maker Coperion Werner & Pfleiderer (Stuttgart, Germany) at its new plant in Bühl. The units are equipped with 58-mm diameter screws. They have an output rate that is said to be up to 30% higher than the existing compounding lines at the company’s previous facility.

European initiative Vinyl 2010 (Brussels, Belgium) recently presented its concept for a two-liter house as part of an energy-efficient buildings project at the European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production in Basel, Switzerland. The two-liter house is described as an approach that can reduce a building’s energy consumption by 90% compared to an average building.

Processing equipment maker Luigi Bandera (Busto Arsizio, Italy) recently hosted an open house where it featured two sheet extrusion lines that can process PET, polypropylene, polystyrene, and polylactic acid resin. One of the lines has been sold to a Polish processor involved in producing thick web for food packaging. Energy consumption for these two lines is said to be about 40% lower than on traditional extrusion equipment.

Pneumatic conveying systems manufacturer Precision AirConvey (PAC; Newark, DE) recently cut the ribbon on the expansion of its company headquarters, more than doubling its space to 200,000 sq ft. The new office and manufacturing space features a new product research and development center and testing laboratory with full-size, fully operating trim handling systems, plastics auxiliary equipment and static control systems, as well as warehouse space. The expansion also includes offices for sales engineers, IT support and quality control management, which are among several new positions created.

PAC has increased its revenues to more than $11 million annually, a 200% increase since its founding in 1999, as interest in equipment for waste handling and recycling systems has increased.

Dr. Reuter Microcell-PU (Osnabruck, Germany) will now market all its products under the new name polyvanced. Until the name change, Microcell has been a captive processor for the Festo Group, a global manufacturer of drives and numerous other products. CEO Robert Mayr remains at the helm. The firm includes a processing facility in Ceska Lipa in the Czech Republic.

polyvanced GmbH extrudes some 40 million meters of tubing per year, primarily from polyurethane, for industries including construction, medical technical systems, and the automotive industry and health care and leisure. The company employs about 100.

Belgian injection molder Polymar (Nivelles) has started producing Compositi-brand toe-cage treads for saddle stirrups from an ABS/nylon blend, Terblend N, supplied by polymer producer BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany). According to Polymar, this marks the first time that this blend has gone into such an application, displacing leather or metal. The lightweight parts prevent a rider’s foot from slipping through the stirrup when the horse is galloping.

The problem posed by using thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to produce injection blow molded bellows for automotive and industrial applications has been, until now, that when the processing unit is shut down, time-consuming and cost-intensive downtime is required before restarting. Two new materials being introduced to the market, Desmopan DP1485A and DP1490A, from resin maker Bayer MaterialsScience (Leverkusen, Germany), promise to eliminate the difficulties. The development was supported by injection blowmolding machine maker Ossberger (Weissenburg, Germany).

With five months until the triennial show kicks off on Oct. 24 in Düsseldorf, the K has eclipsed 3000 exhibitors, reaching 3004. Those exhibitors will be spread over 1.8 million sq ft and 19 halls. In terms of geographic origins, Italy has the largest non-German contingent, with 453 companies, followed by China with 152, Taiwan with 131, and the U.S., which will bring 127 exhibitors.

The automotive market, especially in the U.S., has taken some lumps of late, but it remains a growth industry globally, with two benchmarks within reach short term as Asia-Pacific car sales should hit 10 million units by 2008 and total global passenger car sales poised to surpass 50 million units by 2010. In a new report, Global Industry Analysts Inc. (San Jose, CA) found that global sales of passenger cars should show a compounded annual growth rate of 3.3%, with global passenger car production expanding at a compounded annual rate of 3.6%. Europe remains the largest market, accounting for 38% of the worldwide total.

Chesapeake Corp. (Richmond, VA) has changed the name of its specialty chemical plastic packaging business from Boxmore Plastics to Chesapeake Specialty Chemical Packaging. The business provides high-performance plastics packaging to industries ranging from agrochemical and automotive to food and beverage, with manufacturing in Crewe, England; St. Etienne, France; and Kunshan, China. The company also announced a joint venture near Budapest, Hungary. Chesapeake said in a release it’s working to expand the business, investing more than €3 million in equipment and services.

Global Plastics Bulletin Board

Plans are emerging for World Vinyl Forum III, to be held Sept. 26-28, 2007 in Boston at the Marriott Copley Place Hotel. Scheduled speakers include, Li Jun, chairman of the China Chlor-Alkali Industry Assn. and general manager of Shanghai Chlor-Alkali Chemical Co. Ltd.; Shreekant Diwan, general manager, technical, Reliance Industries Ltd.-India; and Tetsuo Nishide, Vinyl Environmental Council of Japan, among others. To register or view the conference schedule go to http://www.worldvinylforum.org.

The Society of Plastics Engineers’ (SPE; Brookfield, CT) Automotive Division will honor Lawrence Burns with its 2007 Global Executive Engineering Leadership Award and give James Queen the Executive Leadership Award. Burns is the VP R&D and strategic planning at General Motors. Queen is group VP for global engineering at GM. The two will receive their awards at the 37th Automotive Innovation Awards Gala, Nov. 7, in Livonia, MI.

The SPE’s 2007 Thermoforming Conference takes place Sept. 16-19, at the Duke Energy Convention Center and Millennium Hotel, and will include the 17th annual thermoforming parts competition and showcase. Companies are asked to submit their parts for judging by September 10. Products will be judged for their creativity, originality, design complexity, surface finish, secondary operations, technical difficulty, and innovation. Judging takes place on the show floor.

To submit your entry, visit www.ThermoformingDivision.com to download the entry application. For additional information, contact Haydn Forward, chairman of SPE’s Thermoforming Conference Parts Competition: hforward@smi-mfg.com or +1-858-450-1591.

A new website with physical address in Germany serves as a marketplace for used injection molding machinery. The site, www.injectionmoulding.de, is available in German and English.

Extruder manufacturer Rollepaal BV (Dedemsvaart, The Netherlands) recently invited its customers for a two-day information and demonstration session about processing highly-filled PVC multilayer foam core pipe and solid wall pipe. Among other topics, processors learned about direct Addition of calcium carbonate for highly-filled PVC pipes. High calcium carbonate loadings can be limited by dry blend de-mixing during conveying.

Omya, a global supplier of mineral modifiers, jointly organized this event. Rollepaal and Omya ran a line for attendees that processed highly-filled foam layers. Rollepaal claims to be the only manufacturer of equipment that can do both K57 and K 67/68 multilayer foam core dies. The lines were running over 800 kg/hr in combination with a small extruder and die.

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